What’s New in ePhilanthropy

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Norman Reiss

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.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Norman Reiss

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

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Norman Reiss

I’ve long advocated using web based applications, but are we ready for a cloud operating system? Here’s a first look at Google’s Chrome OS, planned for release next summer. (Why not just focus on Android, which is already in wide usage on the mobile platform?)

Need help in planning a social media and online engagement strategy? Here’s a great overview of what’s involved, thanks to Big Duck‘s Farra Trompeter. For example, pick the channels where you have the time and resources to participate (you can’t be everywhere).

Will you join me at the Nonprofit Technology Conference in March in DC? For a preview of some issues we’ll be discussing, Nten summarizes the best of nonprofit technology in 2010.

In social media, a key principle is to listen first. Janet Fouts recently offered a terrific webinar on Streamlining Your Social Media Workflow , and offers this useful list of listening tools.

Only two weeks left to get out your year-end appeals. Here’s why you need to act now, and some last minute advice, more tips on making the ask and best practices for year-end fundraising.

While this is a busy time for fundraisers, I hope you still find time to celebrate the upcoming holidays.

Fundraising Tips / New Attention on Kiva

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Norman Reiss

Many articles lately on how supporters can be your strongest fundraisers: In Understanding the New Breed of Digital Donor, Fundraising Success demonstrates how social media is enpowering supporters to fundraise on their own, with minimal involvement from the nonprofit they support. In Enlisting Your Supporters to Fundraise For You, Idealware describes how friend-to-friend fundraising can be used. In Donors Give Most When Friends Ask, AFP reviews a recent study on large gifts and reaches the same conclusion. (Thanks to Kivi Leroux Miller for highlighting nonprofit communication recently.)

Congratulations to winners of America’s Giving Challenge, proving that even the smallest nonprofits can compete with the larger organizations by taking advantage of social media tools such as Facebook’s Causes application. Social media guru Beth Kanter agrees. Nten also offers ideas on how to Raise Money on Facebook. See also Clicking for a Cause for more thoughts on how social media can help engage constituents and encourage involvement with your cause.

David Roodman’s recent blog post and this week’s follow up NY Times article, questions are raised about the model of newer nonprofits such as Kiva and Global Giving which have supposedly allowed donors to decide specifically how their money will be used. This has resulted in a recent change in Kiva now describing its mission as “connecting people through lending to alleviate proverty.’ My take – this shouldn’t stop the trend towards nonprofits giving donors more of a say in how their contributions will be used. However, it does provide a wake up call on the importance of transparency in explaining how the process works.

Report from Online Nonprofit Technology Conference

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Norman Reiss

This week I had the pleasure of participating in Nten‘s first Online Nonprofit Technology Conference. While on a much smaller scale than the annual spring event, the two days of online webinars featured some of our sector’s brightest stars and allowed an opportunity for much more interaction with the presenters than is normally possible at the live event. Some highlights:

Network for Good‘s Katya Andresen reminded us that raising awareness of our organizations isn’t enough, it’s to ‘get someone to take an action.’ She also recommended we let the constituent be the messenger for our cause (much more effective than if message comes directly from organization). She implored us to focus on the donor when designing our web sites, not on the organization structure, mentioning Kiva and DonorsChoose as examples of how to do this right.
ConmmonGood Career’s James Weinberg described how social networking sites are replacing online job boards. As a way to encourage staff longevity, he suggested finding ways to change job responsibilities even if the position doesn’t change. If nonprofits can’t create opportunities for staff to advance, it is their responsibility to help them move elsewhere (not sure how many nonprofits would agree)
Idealware‘s Laura Quinn offered a sneak peak at her Field Guide to Software, to be released later this year. She added that the choice of donor database is probably the most critical decision (and to make sure everyone in organization is comfortable using it)
Beaconfire‘s Michael Cervino discussed using benchmarks from sites such as PewInternet and e-Benchmarks-Study to measure how well our organizations are performing, also showing how Google Analytics funnels can be used effectively. He also described how online surveys are best used frequently with few questions. (I added this is a great way to add data to help segment your database)
Philantech‘s Dahna Goldstein discussed how to help staff deal with change, e.g. making sure that staff are fully involved and kept informed
Consultant John Kenyon and American Lung’s Rusty Burwell discussed online communications and the importance of inter-department collaboration. See my previous post on this topic. In response to my question, John stated emphatically that social media will never replace email as the main communications medium.

Thanks to Holly and the NTen staff for putting on another great program, and congrats also to Holly for being recognized by Nonprofit Times in the Top 50 Power and Influence!

Are Nonprofits Effectively Using New Social Media Tools?

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Norman Reiss

This week has featured a flurry of comments about whether nonprofits are taking advantage of new social media tools such as Twitter. Seth Godin says no but the Chronicle of Philanthropy gives several examples to show how some nonprofits are doing things right. See also social media guru Beth Kanter’s attempt to reconcile the two sides.

My take: smaller organizations such as Charity:Water will continue to take the lead on showing larger nonprofits how to raise funds and engage constituents in a variety of new ways. Larger organizations are still trying to deal with what Clay Shirky‘s observation during his year’s Nonprofit Technology Conference: nonprofits have already lost control of their branding and messaging .

Here’s a newly released report on How Nonprofits are Using Web-based Technologies to Reach Their Goals. Not surprisingly, many organizations are still experimenting to discover what works. On the for profit side, some companies are using outside firms to manage their Twitter and Facebook presence; my take – social media works best if it’s coming directly from organization staff.

Tips from an ePhilanthropy Pioneer

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Norman Reiss

eTapestry introduced their ‘software as a service’ product in 1999, long before many others realized the benefits of a web based interface. (eTapestry was acquired by Blackbaud in August 2007.) This week I had the opportunity to attend a session given by CEO Jay Love who offered some interesting insights.

Social media is on everyone’s radar lately; Jay described the value of monitoring comments about your company / brand and described a recent experience where eTapestry was able to respond quickly to a negative tweet by a customer. Read about the happy ending.

It’s often frustrating when our donors stop giving, but sometimes the problem is hidden when the number of new donors more than make up the difference. If we can find ways to re-engage lapsed donors, what a difference this can make in our list growth! Here’s some recent Guidestar tips on how to reduce donor attrition rates.

Two important questions to ask:

How do you welcome new subscribers? (Common Knowledge has also done considerable work on developing a welcome series of communications.)
How do you manage relationship after opt-in?

Jay described the importance of having a donor database what everyone uses to document constituent interactions, also detailing a personal experience where he is considering discontinuing support for a charity which ‘asked the same questions’ that he had already answered in a past meeting. In my experience, organizations that have a fully functional CRM often have difficulty getting staff to use it. In response to my question, Jay recommended that nonprofits demonstrate that those who are the biggest ‘note takers’ are the most successful in fundraising – and publicize this information to all staff.

Another point which may seem obvious but isn’t always applied – make sure you direct constituents to specific landing pages so you can track where they came from, not to your general home page.

For more ideas, visit Jay’s blog as well as Blackbaud’s NetWits ThinkTank blog. To learn more about social media, visit the Gear Up for Giving training offered by the Case Foundation.

Why It’s Not the Technology

Posted on September 4, 2009 by Norman Reiss

In preparing for its upcoming Online Nonprofit Technology Conference, Nten has asked What’s Holding Your Technology Back? I’ve posted a lengthy response, but make sure to read through everyone’s comments to this interesting question.

If you missed last week’s Blackbaud NetWits Summer Camp, all sessions and slides are now available for review. I’ve known Steve MacLaughlin for years and his insights are very helpful.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Report from Social Good Conference

Posted on August 29, 2009 by Norman Reiss

Yesterday’s Social Good Conference was the final event of the Summer of Social Good, benefiting four nonprofit organizations which were featured at yesterday’s event: Livestrong, Humane Society, Oxfam America and WWF. The program offered many examples of how we can use online tools to further our missions, particularly social media.

Facebook’s Randi Zuckenberg suggested that to fully take advantage of Facebook’s latest capabilities such as their Insights Tool, nonprofits setup a page, not just a group. She also suggested creating videos to feature on the page. It’s not so important how many fans your page has rather how many of them are engaged with your cause. Read more at Wall Street Journal.

Global Giving and Causecast offered brief presentations to show many ways constituents can be encouraged to support causes beyond making direct donations.

What have been the most successful online fundraising campaigns: Twestival ($250,000), America’s Giving Challenge ($340,000) and Causes Birthday Wishes ($ 2 million in 6 months!).

Andy Ridley offered a stirring review of the success of the worldwide Earth Hour initiave, reminding us to ‘let people make their own messages’ to promote your cause.

Oxfam America extensively uses social media because “it’s the best way to reach supporters quickly” and “allows for instant response / feedback.” Bob Ferguson offered these suggestions on how to help Oxfam:

follow us on Twitter and retweet our posts
join our Facebook fan page and repost
sign up for our e-advocacy list
volunteer
tell others about Oxfam

Humane Society has made a strong commitment to ephilanthropy and was an early adopter of social media. They have 25 (!) staff in online communications, 6 which focus on social media. Everyone in the organization “gets it” – their CEO is tech savvy and blogs regularly. They’ve raised over $400,000 in Facebook Causes (still doubt that this platform can be a significant contributor to fundraising revenue?). While brand monitoring “can be very time consuming,” Twitter offers the best way to keep in touch with what others are saying about your organization. Take advantage of tools such as Tweetdeck and Google Alerts.

WWF explained their social media strategy as a way to build community, not just do fundraising. They’ve also worked with MobileCommons to build a mobile subscriber list and were recently featured in the Facebook Gift Center. They’ve also built relationships using eBay Giving Works and SocialVibe.

LiveStrong described their recent Global Cancer Summit, which was promoted primarily in Facebook and Twitter, and attracted 4500 online attendees. Their goal: “make those online feel like they are at the Summit and are participating and learning.”

Beth Kanter has long offered a wonderful blog on social media; her in person presentation was equally stimulating. Beth suggested we use three R’s to connect with our constituents: relationship building (don’t just connect when asking for money), rewards and reciprocity. She also used her personal connection with Cambodian children to demonstrate the power of establishing an emotional connection with story telling. Read Beth’s comments on conference.

Drew Olanoff, recently diagnosed with cancer, offered a stirring description of how he’s created Blame Drew’s Cancer to promote Livestrong.

All for Good‘s Jonathan Greenblatt described how his organization is using open source to transform volunteerism and to engage all Americans in service.

My take aways from the day:

Organizations like HumaneSociety are succeeding online because everyone in the nonprofit is involved, not just a ‘department’ which has been charged with the role of promoting and monitoring their online brand
It’s important to support organizations that have charitable goals. My wife has a large shoes collection, but we’ve never known about Tom’s Shoes.
While online connections are important, so are face to face conversations. Some attendees I tried to speak with at the conference seemed so involved with their computers / phones that I felt that any attempt to speak to them would not be welcome.
We need to all find a way to make volunteering part of our lives. I’ve slipped a bit and will do my best to rectify this by year-end
Use social media tools to engage with constituents, not just build a large list. The organizations profiled above have set a wonderful example of us to follow.

The end of the event featured a surprise ‘announcement’: Mashable’ COO Adam Schwartz, who hosted the event, proposed marriage to Sharon Feder on stage. We all cheered and she said yes.

Nonprofit Bridge

Bridging Technology, Communications & Development to Implement ePhilanthropy for Nonprofit Organizations

Tag Archives: nptech

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

Report from Online Nonprofit Technology Conference

Why It’s Not the Technology