Category Archives: technology

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.

 

Too Much Content? Less is More

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OK, we’re all trying to keep up with email, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Plus.  So we’re scanning our messages quickly, and consider it an accomplishment when we’re ‘up to date’ (at least for a brief moment).  I’ve realized lately that sometimes less is more when it comes to actually absorbing the content we are reading.

Back when we were in school, we had to memorize facts so we could repeat them on a test.  Afterwards, we could clear our memory banks and start the process again.  Now that we’re ‘adults,’ there’s so much more information coming at us and it’s become increasingly difficult to retain the major ideas of what we’re reading.

I realized this recently when I found myself often sharing content with others that I hadn’t actually read beyond the brief Twitter summary or at best having read the first few sentences.  This became a bit embarrassing when others ask follow up questions about the content and I realize that I didn’t really understand the gist of what was said.

I recently read Hamlet’s Blackberry, which describes how many of us have become so distracted by constant access to information online that we can’t concentrate on any one article / post for more than a few seconds.  Interestingly, this isn’t a new phenomenon, but has happened every time a new type of communication channel has been introduced.

So do we turn down the spigot of information, and read less?  This can help, but more importantly, I’ve found that it helps to remind myself to focus a bit more on what I am reading online to make sure I’ve actually absorbed the material.  Especially if I want to share content and engage others, I have to be able to add my own insights to others’ thoughts.  Obviously I can’t do this if I haven’t taken the time to understand the content’s main messages.

By the way, if you’re spending this weekend on the beach and enjoying the sun and the surf, put the phone away so you can enjoy the moment.  Checking emails and the many social networks can wait.

What’s Next for Me – Center for Court Innovation

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Since moving to the nonprofit sector in August 2000, I’ve held a wide range of roles at multiple organizations, promoting technology to help achieve nonprofits’ overall goals.  Although I’ve usually been part of a technology group, my role in project management has brought me into daily contact with colleagues in development, marketing and communications.  I’ve also worked closely with consultants, developers, designers and programmers in building websites and other online applications.

CCI logoAs the next step in my career, I will join the Center for Court Innovation (CCI) on Monday, an organization which has used technology to revolutionize who things are done in criminal justice, creating demonstration projects throughout New York which have been used as a model for similar initiatives elsewhere in the United States and internationally.

As Project Manager, I will be supporting and enhancing the use of technology at many of these projects, as well as helping to create new programs.  CCI describes its goals as helping victims, reducing crime, strengthening neighborhoods and improving public trust in justice.

As I learned more about the organization during the interviewing process, I’ve been impressed by the Center for Court Innovation’s focus on innovation and having won numerous awards for its achievements in only 15 years of existence, as well as the professionalism of those I met with.

If you’re not familiar with CCI’s work, please visit its website, Facebook page and Twitter stream - or watch this overview video – as I begin another chapter in my career serving nonprofits.

Taking a Look at Website Usability

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In his latest book Rocket Surgery Made Easy, Steve Krug debunks the misconception that it takes a lot of money and resources to test your website for usability.  You can actually accomplish a lot in one morning a month by offering three users a relatively small amount to do basic tasks while you watch and listen.  So if this is so simple, why do so many sites suffer from what seem to be obvious usability problems?

  1. Testing is done, but with staff from your organization (to save money).  For the best results, you need to recruit users who are not already familiar with your company, product or services and who don’t have any vested interests in how to respond
  2. Testing occurs too late in website development process, when it is too late to address the issues that come up
  3. Management isn’t involved in the usability testing process, and as a result they don’t understand why its findings are so valuable
  4. Organization decides not to make changes until the next major site redesign;  as Steve mentions, often a minor tweak is enough to solve a problem
  5. There is confusion about what your major site objectives are;  this often causes your home page to have too much information and satisfies your internal departments but not your intended user audience
  6. Trying to do too much;  it’s best to focus on those issues which are causing confusion for the most users and are the most serious (not simply an inconvenience)
  7. Site design requires too many steps to complete most common objectives or provides too many distractions which take user off task

Many of us have looked at our website so often that we know how everything works, and where in the menu we need to go to find certain tasks.  But we are not our audience. Take the time to do some website usability testing, and you will be surprised how frustrated your users get trying to do simple things, like complete a financial transaction.  To learn more, read Steve Krug’s earlier book Don’t Make Me Think, and subscribe to updates from Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt.com site.

You Don’t Need to Recreate the Wheel

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Trying to figure out how your organization can be more effective online?  There are many nonprofits that are already succeeding that you can learn from.  Probably the most publicized success story in recent years is the astounding growth of charity: water, featured in a recent post by davidconnell.net.  One particularly interesting point is how charity: water has partnered which local organizations that actually do much of their core work (the nonprofit didn’t build an infrastructure to do it themselves).

In addition, when charity: water communicates with its supporters, the focus is on the cause, not the organization.  If your organization does many different things and you’re having difficulty what to focus on, take Katya Andresen’s suggestion to make modules out of your mission.  Not all of your constituents will care about everything you do, but there is probably some program or activity that particularly interests them.

Hearing a lot about mobile?  Nten‘s Holly Ross discusses 5 Nonprofits That Are Innovating with Mobile.  Even if you decide that you don’t have the bandwidth for a mobile approach yet, don’t forget to test outgoing emails on cell phones since so many more constituents are reading emails on cell phones.

The old model of technology focused on getting support from product vendors.  While I still work closely with my vendors’ customer support staffs, I also rely on checking in with my colleagues across the country, many who are asking the same questions as I am.  (Some issues I’m currently working on are how can I increase engagement with my organization’s Facebook followers and how can I integrate online forms from my vendors in social media platforms – since this is where many of my constituents are spending time online, never reaching my nonprofit’s website).

Another way to learn from others is to follow the most frequently used nonprofit hashtags, as nicely summarized by Kerri Karvetski.  (Don’t forget to use these hashtags when you post on Twitter!)

Fortunately, the nonprofit sector is a very open, sharing community.  Instead of struggling on your own, take the time to learn from what other organizations have already done, and ask for help if you need assistance in making your nonprofit shine online.  And don’t be afraid to fail.  As I was recently reminded by social media superstar Danielle Brigida, most of us are still figuring things out, especially since online products / services are constantly changing.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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If you’re convinced that integrated fundraising / marketing would help your organization but are finding it a challenge to implement, read these tips from Convio on how to break down your silos.  Also listen to this week’s free webinar from Fundraising Success on Strategies for Seamless Integration Across Fundraising Channels.  If multiple departments maintain their own calendars of constituent outreach activities, this is a good place to start by using an integrated calendar (and keeping it current).

Email isn’t dead yet, and many of us are still asking questions about what’s too much and how can we increase open / action rates.  For help, see 14 tips for making your nonprofit email more effective,   Make sure you think carefully about the subject line (which will affect whether or not readers decide to open your message) and test for stronger email performance.    Here’s more ideas on how much communication is too much.   Struggling with content ideas for your next enewsletter or direct mail piece?  Try these three stories every nonprofit should know how to write.

After this week’s announcement of the upgraded iPad, is it time to retire the PC in favor of laptops and tablets?  Seems to me that having a real keyboard is still helpful, especially on mobile phones which continue to boom.

If you’re planning to re-do your website, consider first what platform will serve you best, such as WordPress or Drupal.  The newly updated Idealware Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits is also a great reference.

Coming next week – a preview of Nten‘s Nonprofit Technology Conference, which I’ll be attending later this month.

 

Why Technology is Core to Your Mission

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Back when I was focused mostly on technology, my role was often viewed as a back end function, not really part of the core mission of the organization I worked for.   Currently, technology is no longer a niche specialty, but something that everyone is involved in through the huge influence of cell phones and portable computers.   And while I still help nonprofits to make the best use of technology, my role has expanded to include communications, marketing and fundraising.

Blackbaud’s new report, Top Trends in Technology offers a great overview of how technology now influences an organization far beyond the original emphasis of desktop and network computing.   Definitely worth reviewing in detail;  some of my takeaways are:

  • Continually evaluate how well your website is serving your constituents.  Many nonprofits still only focus on the website while it’s being redesigned, then allow it to stay dormant until the next makeover.  Remember that your web presence serves many audiences, those who already support your cause and others who are new to your organization and are seeking an overview of your services.  Give your website a health check.
  • Know who your strongest supporters are and help them to spread the word about your organization.  Most nonprofits already focus on those who have given major gifts or who are strong candidates to do so.  But many other constituents want to help you to engage others in your mission, not only by making donations.  Find out how to help with fundraising without asking for money.
  • The idea of a single supporter database is difficult to implement, but do your best to reduce islands of data that may develop when staff aren’t adequately trained to keep their data in a central, sharable location
  • Establish a culture where technology is implemented to achieve specific organization goals, not because a vendor or consultant tells you that it is a good strategy.

Fortunately, technology is no longer a back end service, but affects the overall success of how well your nonprofit achieves its mission.  Establish a partnership between IT and other departments, as suggested by how fundraisers can manage and work with IT departments.

P.S. Hope you’ll join me at Nten‘s Nonprofit Technology Conference, coming up in March in Washington DC.  It’s always a great event, and we talk a lot about these topics.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Attended an interesting session on email marketing and social media at the All About Email Virtual Conference and Expo yesterday, reviewing how these channels can be used to complement each other.  An important point – since you don’t ‘own’ information on Facebook and Twitter, it’s still important to build your own email list.  (Sessions were recorded and will be available for listening starting Mon, Nov. 15.)

While we’ve seen reports on social media and email marketing, there’s been little to guide nonprofits on website statistics until the new 2010 Website Benchmarks Report available from Groundwire.  Although the report focuses on small environmental organizations, its findings are useful for all nonprofits.

When deciding how to do fundraising, do you rely on data or on your own instinct.  Jeff Brooks in Future Fundraising Now suggests that you use facts and past experience as your guide.   And if you think that a multichannel approach to fundraising / marketing is something new, take a look at Hank Rosso’s classic Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, last revised in 2003 (see chapter on using the Internet as a fundraising vehicle).

If you still need help with your year end fundraising drive yet, get some help from Network from Good’s upcoming webinar as well as this tool from Blue State Digital which analyzes your Google Analytics data.  (Tip – don’t wait until the last week of 2010 to frantically prepare an appeal.)

Like to be on the cutting edge?  Try RockMelt, a soon to be released browser which integrates social media.

If you’re in NYC next week, attend the Foundation Center’s Open House on Tue, Nov. 16 and Nten‘s 501 Tech NYC meeting Wed evening, Nov. 17, which will feature Allyson Kapin, from Rad Campaign, Women Who Tech and lead blogger at Frogloop offering tips on nonprofit technology and social media.

Enabling Donors to Choose How Money Is Used

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This week I was invited to take a look at GiveLoop, a new software platform for processing online donations.  Inspired by sites such as Kiva and DonorsChoose, GiveLoop allows nonprofits to empower constituents to decide exactly how their donations will be used by ‘voting with their money.’  Benefits for the nonprofit are to increase donation size, increase donor loyalty and increase donor volume, as well as providing more transparency.  If you’ve looked at direct mail appeals you’ve received lately, you will probably notice how donation levels are often associated with what each amount will allow the nonprofit to do, but doesn’t obligate the organization to use the funds for that purpose.

While GiveLoop offers an interesting new way to do online fundraising, most organizations I’ve worked with have been wary of collecting restricted funds, partially due to the accounting requirements and partially because they really don’t want to give constituents this level of control.  But this reminds me of the difficulty some nonprofits have had in embracing social media because they want to control the messaging.  But as Clay Shirky pointed out at last year’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, ‘you’ve already lost control.’

However, I like the idea of GiveLoop as continuing the recent trend of giving donors more information about what their money will be used for, and then reporting back on how the donations were actually used.  GiveLoop also tries into social networking, although co-founder Todd Spitz told me that it was too early to tell whether constituents who have given through GiveLoop have been successful in becoming fundraisers for the causes they support.

For a nonprofit that is considering using a product like GiveLoop, a question to ask is whether the organization is really interested in listening to their supporters, or if they are doing it simply to raise more money.  If it’s the latter, then the effort is less likely to be successful as constituents will eventually realize that their input is not welcome.  There also needs to be full transparency about what will happen if the requested funds for a specific project are not raised;  will the balance be made up by another donation source or will the donor be asked to consider supporting another initiative?

Interestingly, GiveLoop’s FAQ clearly states that the nonprofit is not obligated to use the money in the way donors select.  But to make the most of this type of program, an organization clearly has to be willing to give constituents a much greater role in how funds are spent, similar to why it’s so important to listen first in social media and not simply treat it as another way to send out nonprofit updates.

Why Small Donations Matter

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In addition to spending many hours online, I still do read books.  Recently I finished Wendy Smith’s Give a Little – How Small Donations Are Changing the World.  If you ever think that only large contributions make a difference, this book will change your mind, showing how small gifts make up the bulk of many nonprofits’ revenues.  In addition, I was introduced to many wonderful nonprofits that I wasn’t already familiar with – a complete list is available here.  My favorite quote – “giving changes you as well as the world.”

Your small gift can also help these very worthwhile causes:

If you missed the recent PBS Frontline presentation of Digital Nation, you can watch it (and comment) online.   It is very thought provoking, and may provide a reminder that multitasking is not always the best way to get things done.  Also see this report from Pew Internet on Social Media and Young Adults.

Wondering about whether mobile fundraising will become a major fundraising channel as it has been for Haiti?  See MobileActive’s Definitive Guide to Mobile Fundraising as well as Beth Kanter’s summary of some recent viewpoints.