Nonprofit Bridge

As other forms of online communication have become available, the main website is no longer the only place where constituents can get information about a nonprofit.   However, it is still important to make sure that the website provides a current and accurate picture of your organization.  Considering a redesign?  If so:

1. Examine your motivation.  If your prime purpose is to utilize a new technology or to mimic what other nonprofits are doing, that’s not enough of a reason.  If you want to make it easier for supporters to find what they need and to feel more connected with your organization’s mission, then you’re on the right track.
2. Plan what content management system (CMS) will best suit your needs.  As has always been the case with technology, you need to find the right balance between functionality and ease of use.  Your staff must feel comfortable with whatever tool you select so they will keep the website up to date.
3. Before hiring a consultant or agency to help manage the process, make sure you speak with references.  Beware those who are overly committed to one product or platform, especially if they haven’t yet taken the time to understand your needs.
4. Check for consistency with other communication channels: images, messaging, design.  If you’re planning a new look for your website, your other materials will need to change too.
5. Make sure your new design provides multiple ways for constituents to give feedback and to be engaged.  Provide links or active feeds from your Facebook and Twitter streams.
6. Identify all stakeholders in your organization and set up a process by which departments work together throughout site development – website redesign must be a collaborative process.
7. Get feedback from constituents before, during and after the new site is launched.  Don’t fall into the trap of getting opinions mostly from co-workers or from the consultant / vendor that’s assisting you.
8. Consider using agile project management processes to split the project into small chunks.  This will allow you to celebrate small successes and make changes along the way.
9. Don’t forget to include staff training in your project plan, especially if you’re implementing a new CMS.  Provide training in many formats: printed documentation, on screen FAQs, webinars, live classes etc.
10. Using tools such as Google Analytics, take the time to analyze what your constituents are most frequently seeking, and make sure your new design reflects those needs.

Website design doesn’t end when you launch the new site.  As you continue to get supporter feedback, continue to tweak as needed.  A website should be constantly evolving as you discover new ways to inform and engage your audience.

Attended two events this week on social media, one live and one over the web.  Bonnie McEwan of Make Waves presented ‘U R What U Tweet: Social Media for Career Enhancement‘ at the NYC Foundation Center.  Blackbaud‘s Frank Barry presented ‘Donor Engagement through Social Media.’

At Bonnie’s presentation, I replied to an audience question about how does someone show that they are  ’social media savvy’?  For an individual who wants to establish their professional brand, start with LinkedIn and then a blog – if you can maintain it regularly.  For an organization, Frank suggested selecting a few social networks to start with, preferably those where your constituents are already speaking about your organization and/or cause.  Don’t try to be ‘everywhere’ or by simply using the same messaging.

Should one try to maintain separate professional and personal profiles on sites such as Twitter?  Bonnie said no, that it’s better to ‘be who you are.’   I agree – but make sure that at least 75-80% of your posts are related to your brand.  Bonnie added that every nonprofit should have a social media policy – see this example.

How do you find out what others are saying about your organization.  Frank summarized these tools, only one which is paid:

• socialmention
• twitter search (my tip – use the advanced option)
• google alerts
• technorati (to search blogs)
• igoogle dashboard (can be used to summarize feeds from above sites)
• radian6 (paid, but provides more sophisticated options)

If you are on social media, you need to engage your audience in conversation, not just send out information.  Frank suggested several ways to enhance your Facebook presence:

1. use custom tabs
2. create calls to action (e.g. sign up for our enewsletter)
3. provide direct links to other social networking sites
4. customize your logo
5. take advantage of Facebook’s built in photo sharing tool (or use Flickr)
6. post updates on your events
7. use third party fundraising tools
8. allow others to post on your wall
9. use video to connect with supporters
10. include content from your blog

Here’s another perspective on designing social media engagement from Debra Askanase.

Don’t forget to learn from those nonprofits that are actively using social media to build their supporter base;  Patrick Kwan and Carie Lewis at the Humane Society;  Wendy Harman of the American Red Cross, and the National Wildlife Federation‘s Danielle Brigida.  (As Frank pointed out, it’s best to put someone in your organization in charge of your social media efforts.)

Is social media worthwhile?  In my view, it’s important to measure your success not only by the financial contributions your organization receives, but by the level of commitment supporters demonstrate to your mission.  By maintaining an ongoing conversation with constituents in social media, you will ultimately benefit by both measures.

This week I received an especially interesting enewsletter from Nten, the nonprofit technology organization that I’ve been involved with for many years.  There was a lot of great content, such as:

1. project management on web redesigns
2. optimizing web sites for social media
3. asking the right questions to appeal to the right audience
4. getting help with web analytics with the Analysis Exchange
5. tips on creating website content
6. taking advantage of the mobile web
7. a roundup of other useful links, also featured in Nten’s blog

Many nonprofits have started to phase out paper newsletters in favor of enewsletters, but I wonder whether even this medium is still an effective way to reach constituents.  The average open rate for email newsletters is usually around 20% (see e2010 Nonprofit Benchmarks Study), and even those who do open them probably only scan them quickly.  When I realized the value of Nten’s content, my first inclination was to share the articles individually through my Twitter stream.  While many sites now have an easy way to do this, I often use Add This, which I’ve installed on my computer for easy sharing to multiple social networking sites.

No, I’m not advocating that you ditch the enewsletter.  But I am suggesting that wherever possible, you make information available to your constituents in small bites, and make sure there is an easy way to share content through social media and by emailing to friends.  And if you want to make sure your great content is noticed, make it available in multiple channels, but make sure to tweak to take advantage of strengths of each medium.

At last night’s 501 Tech Club NYC monthly meeting, Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadura and Brooklyn Museum‘s Chief of Technology Shelley Bernstein talked about how Foursquare can be used to attract and engage constituents.  Earlier this week, Foursquare received $20 million in financing and currently has over 1.8 million users despite having only launched 18 months ago.

Naveen described his product as ‘software designed to change people’s behavior,’ to ‘get them to do more things, go more places.’  In addition to becoming ‘mayor’ of places frequently visited, Foursquare users can display badges as well as take advantage of promotions offered by participating vendors.  Shelley described how her organization has used Foursquare to get more involved with the community surrounding the Brooklyn Museum.  Interestingly, when she was asked whether the museum’s initiatives have resulted in an increase in museum visits or in donations, she said that Foursquare doesn’t yet offer enough information to be able to evaluate this.  Naveen added that Foursquare currently offers limited demographics on who is currently using its service.

Why has Foursquare worked well for the Brooklyn Museum?  Shelley explained that it was the nonprofit’s ‘social culture,’ which is further discussed in the recently released book, The Networked Nonprofit (Beth Kanter also attended last night’s event).  Another attendee from the Metropolitan Museum also described using Foursquare, but pointed out that it was more tied into the Met’s focus on education (vs. the Brooklyn Museum’s emphasis on community).

Reportedly Facebook is already working on including a similar functionality within its service, so it will be interesting to see how this affects Foursquare.  What I find most interesting is that for many of us who use the web, it really doesn’t matter where we are.  Yet with Foursquare, users are encouraged to ‘check in’ to their location several times daily, and to possibly connect with (in person) other friends who are where you are.  Can this be beneficial for a typical nonprofit?  If your constituents are using Foursquare, it may be interesting to find out.  But as has been done by the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum, first consider your organization’s mission and how this type of product can fit in.

Thanks to group leaders Charles Lenchner, Thomas Negron and Farra Trompeter and to Planned Parenthood who hosted the event and provided snacks.  This was the largest crowd that I can recall for a NYC 501 Tech Club gathering.  See also Farra’s recap.

P.S. Has your nonprofit tried Foursquare yet?  If so, leave a comment detailing your experience.  I will offer a free Nten webinar registration to first person that responds.

As much as I’m on the web, I’m also a big reader, especially of books in ephilanthropy.  Here’s some selections from my summer reading list:

1. The Networked Nonprofit – Beth Kanter & Allison Fine – as discussed last week, Beth & Allison offer advice on how to use social media to make your nonprofit more ‘open’ and is authored by two of the most respected experts.  More about live book release events here.
2. Fundraising When Money Is Tight – Mal Warwick – Having long advised fundraisers, Mal focuses on how to survive in tough times.
3. Raising Thousands (if Not Tens of Thousands) of Dollars with Email – Madeline Stanionis – Email marketing is still the nucleus of many organizations’ fundraising campaigns;  Madeline advises on how to use it most effectively
4. The Nonprofit Marketing Guide – Kivi Leroux Miller – Kivi has always been generous with her knowledge on the web;  the book offers advice on “high impact, low cost ways to build support” for your cause
5. Internet Management for Nonprofits – Ted Hart, James Greenfield, Steve MacLaughlin, Philip Geier – Recommended by Nten‘s Holly Ross, this book offers individual chapters by a wide range of ephilanthropy experts
6. The Ask – Laura Fredericks – While not heavy in online techniques, Laura offers many specifics on ‘how to ask anyone for any amount for any purpose.’
7. Developing Your Case for Support – Timothy Seiler – I haven’t started reading yet, but my sense is that many nonprofits can benefit from a systematic approach of demonstrating to potential contributors why they should help
8. Open Leadership – Charlene Li – Follow up to her popular Groundswell, Charlene describes how social media can help your organization

A few more that are not nonprofit specific, but are still very relevant:

9. Rework – Jason Fried & David Hansson – Authors are founders of 37signals, developers of project management software Basecamp.
10. Switch – Chip Heath & Dan Heath – I am always fascinated by books about the change process;  Chip & Dan’s suggestion of focusing on what works, not on what doesn’t, is particularly enlightening.

You may be able to get some of these from your local library.  (If you’re in New York, please help the New York Public Library, which is facing drastic funding cuts.)  Above (affiliate) links are through Amazon, which usually has the best prices.  So if you’re heading for the beach, take one of these books along.

Beth Kanter, CEO of Zoetica, who has shared her expertise for years on Beth’s Blog an at various nonprofit events, will host a virtual launch party Mon, Jun. 21 for her new book The Networked Nonprofit with co-author Allison Fine.  Beth has long been a proponent for social media, but that’s not all that this book is about.  It’s also about changing the culture of your organization to operate in a network, much as individuals have recently learned the importance of networking from experts like author Keith Ferrazzi in Never Eat Alone and Jason Alba in his JibberJobber career management site and his other resources such as LinkedIn for Job Seekers.

Care2 hosted a webinar this week featuring the authors, National Wildlife Federation‘s Danielle Brigada and Autism Speaks‘ Marc Sirkin, moderated by Care2‘s Jocelyn Harmon who writes Marketing for Nonprofits.  Whether you read the book, attend the virtual launch or hear Beth and Allison’s ideas on the web or at an event , don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to transform your organization to “play well with others.”

Kudos to Danielle, who admitted during this week’s webinar how challenging it can be to change a large nonprofit that often moves slowly.  (My experience has been the same.)   But whatever size organization you work for, becoming more “networked” will better enable you to serve your constituents.

When my wife and I moved to a smaller home last year, I was faced with the daunting task of reviewing a batch of papers that I had accumulated over the years, many which were articles clipped from magazines or printouts of web postings that relate to online fundraising and marketing.  To my surprise, some of these articles are still very much relevant.  A sampling is below:

Multi-Channel Fundraising: Tips of the Trade (2007) – David Lawson, then with Kintera (now part of Blackbaud) and now with DonorTrends, offered seven tips in how nonprofits can establish a multi-channel fundraising initiative:

1. ask constituents their preferences on how they prefer to be contacted and what they want to be contacted about
2. use web analytics to learn what constituents are most interested in and which channels are most utilized
3. add communication preferences as another way to segment the database
4. set up a social networking page (Most of us have done this by now but still struggling to prove its value)
5. create cross-functional campaign integration teams so that multiple departments within an organization are accustomed to working together
6. enable incoming multiple-channel communications – give constituents multiple ways to respond – e.g. phone, email, web site etc.
7. maintain consistent messaging so that ‘overall message the image the organization would like to convey remains consistent across channels.’

Tips to Energize Your Donor Newsletter (2009) – This article from FundRaising Success Magazine details what many nonprofit enewsletters do wrong:

1. focusing too much on organization and not enough on what donors care about, e.g. how did my contributions make a difference?
2. not using the word ‘you’ to further focus on the constituent
3. lacking emotional triggers
4. not making donors feel that they are essential to how you achieve your mission
5. including long articles instead of short paragraphs, bulleted lists
6. using statistics instead of anecdotes
7. lacking a strong headline that will encourage a constituent to read the content

Also provided were 15 ideas on what content to include in a enewsletter (many nonprofits still wait until the last minute and struggle with what to write about).

Accentuate the Positive: How to Bridge the Divide between Fundraising and Marketing Efforts (2007) (only accessible online if you are an AFP member) – As I’ve often suggested, Network for Good‘s CEO Bill Strathmann describes the roles of marketing and fundraising are “complementary,” explaining how in many nonprofits, marketing is fundraising since it exists primarily to encourage support of the organization.  Jo Sullivan, now with CDR Fundraising Group,  previously managed both functions at ASPCA and described how she successfully build a strong organization brand.

(On the same topic, see Nancy Schwartz’s 2008 post on how to Make Your Communications Planning a Team Effort.)

In an effort to be more ‘green’ – and to avoid the problem of clipping articles that I won’t easily find again – I eventually switched to saving articles on my computer and then to referencing in my blog and social networking sites such as Twitter.  This is much more satisfying since not only do I reinforce my personal brand in ephilanthropy, but am also able to share interesting information with my nonprofit colleagues.

Implementing the recommendations above is difficult because it may require us to restructure our organizations and change how we think about developing and implementing online campaigns.  Have you been able to do this at your nonprofit?

Attended this week’s NYC chapter meeting of the Internet Strategy Forum, where we discussed the latest changes on Facebook.  View the presentation;  plan to attend our future meetings (remote access is available even if you’re not in NY).

Kivi Leroux Miller, in addition to having released her new book Nonprofit Marketing Guide, also wrote an excellent post on Beth Kanter’s blog about the importance of knitting together your website, email and social media content.  Since each constituent may choose to connect with your organization in different channels, why not offer a consistent message throughout?  Also consider taking Idealware‘s webinar next week on Choosing the Right Communications Mix.

Beth also offered a simple process to use actionable listening to learn from other nonprofits when planning your social media outreach strategy.

Gail Fredricks spoke to ABC News about How to Ask for Money – great summary for those of us who are still learning about fundraising.

Many of us are now managing or working with colleagues across the country or even in other countries.  Nten has just kicked off a webinar series, Virtual Team Leader: Training for Managers of Remote Teams (a recording is available of yesterday’s first of four sessions).  Tip: Don’t rely only on email as your main communications device.

For some email marketing tips, read about the importance of personalized messages and 3 things that will actually improve your email campaigns.

Jocelyn Harmon and Geoff Livingston had an interesting discussion this week on the perennial question, Is It Possible to Raise Money with Social Media?  As I’ve suggested, Geoff pointed out that while social media can be used for fundraising, its main value is in building a social community that is engaged with your cause.   While Facebook Causes has worked for some nonprofits, it doesn’t allow organizations to retain contributors’ contact information for further cultivation efforts.   A private, house network may also be a viable option;   Geoff offered the example of TuDiabetes.

At this week’s NYC 501 Tech Club meeting, I also gave a short presentation on the recently released Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report, which also analyzes the results of a survey of almost 1,200 nonprofit professionals conducted earlier this year.  Search Twitter for #501techNYC for more details on meeting.  Nten is also offering a webinar series which explores the State of Social Networking in the Nonprofit Sector 2010.

Another interesting topic is the intersection of Marketing and Fundraising, explored in the Fundraising Well (and also by Steve MacLaughlin in When Marketing and Fundraising Collide).   Nancy Schwartz offers four ways that these departments can work better together:

1. Start at the top.  Your management team must support this partnership and establish a structure which facilitates collaboration.
2. Articulate shared priorities to serve as the core of a common agenda.
3. Focus on what’s working well in both areas – and do more of it
4. Share success stories where collaboration has resulted in positive results with constituents.

Finally, has your organization considered mission inspired gifts / gift catalogs?  Also see 7 Tips for Successful Online Fundraising.

Please follow NonprofitBridge on Twitter for more.

This week I tweeted about an article by Lisa Sargent which described how nonprofits can learn from how the Wall Street Journal develops content for many different formats / channels.  Lisa relates how nonprofits can follow a similar process to distribute content to interviews, press releases, website articles, enewsletters and other donor / marketing  communications.  Since this is an issue organizations often struggle with, here’s some additional thoughts:

1. Not all information will be appropriate for all formats.  Replicating content across different media without any adjustments won’t be effective.
2. Generally, the shorter and more targeted, the better.  The only place where long messages seem to work well is in direct mail;  especially if you’re developing content for the web, you need to get the information across quickly and concisely.
3. Accumulate stories / testimonials about how your nonprofit serves your constituents. Actively seek feedback from your audience so you will regularly have fresh content to draw from.
4. Show your donors how their help has made a difference.  Do this by regular reports about what their contributions have allowed you to accomplish.
5. When you use content in different ways in different channels, reference them to each other.  Link a tweet to a website page which provides more detail.
6. Find out what others are saying about your cause (e.g. use Google Alerts), then link and expand upon these ideas in your communications (as I do in this blog).
7. Maintain an integrated communications calendar of when you will update various channels – and keep to that schedule so constituents know what to expect.   See Aspiration’s Online Communications Publishing Matrix if you need help.

Developing interesting and engaging content takes work, but by staying in touch regularly with your constituents, they will be more responsive to your occasional requests for financial support.