Michael Stein: Internet Strategy for the Nonprofit Sector

Madera Group is on the move

Madera Group, for whom I work on several client projects, shared some of their news recently in an email update.  In May, Madera Group joined a dozen public benefit organizations, including Earth Island Institute, The Redford Center and International Rivers as anchor tenants in a remarkable high-tech green office building in downtown Berkeley, California, called the David Brower Center.

Madera Group has done some exciting work recently with the Clinton Foundation, helping to highlight their work on climate change. Madera was part of the communications team that announced the green retrofit of the Empire State Building. And earlier this month, Madera collaborated on an online campaign that provided an opportunity to ask President Clinton questions on the climate crisis — more than 2,000 queries funneled through the former President’s Facebook page to his office in Harlem.

In other client news, Madera worked to bring attention to Make Mine a Million $ Business. M3 is a program of the micro finance organization Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, founded by Nell Merlino. Her innovative program to jumpstart the success of women entrepreneurs is now directly supporting more than 65,000 new and established women-owned businesses around the country.

Learn more about Madera on their website and blog

Though popular, Facebook Causes ineffective for fundraising, writes Washington Post

The Washington Post reported in April 2009 that Facebook Causes have been relatively ineffective for nonprofits seeking to use them for fundraising, something nonprofits have suspected for some time now.  The Post authors write:

The Facebook application Causes, hugely popular among nonprofit organizations seeking to raise money online, has been largely ineffective in its first two years, trailing direct mail, fundraising events and other more traditional methods of soliciting contributions. Only a tiny fraction of the 179,000 nonprofits that have turned to Causes as an inexpensive and green way to seek donations have brought in even $1,000, according to data available on the Causes developers' site.

The article includes comments from one of the developers of the Cause Application, Joe Green.

He said Causes raises almost $40,000 a day across its groups, up from $3,000 a day a year ago. "The biggest successes have been tiny nonprofits who don't have the name recognition of the big guys."  But in the majority of cases, that theory hasn't translated into significant dollars. Fewer than 50 of the 179,000 groups on Causes have raised $10,000, and just two -- the Nature Conservancy and Students for a Free Tibet -- have cracked the $100,000 mark.

Good article, worth a read

The WordPress anatomy of Robert Weiner's website

My good friend Robert Weiner is also a nonprofit technology consultant and he recently rebuilt his consultant website using WordPress.  In this interesting blog post, he pops open the hood and reveals how he built his website with WordPress, who he hired to help him, and the various resources he used.  Thanks, Robert, I appreciate you sharing this information with the community.

Read more about Robert Weiner's WordPress website

The hidden potential of footers on websites

The posts on the various Blackbaud blogs are usually a little too technical for me, but a recent item by website designer Raheel Gauba caught my eye with a discussion about the hidden potential of footers on websites.  Raheel writes: "Most organizations, including some fairly large ones, are not taking advantage of the hidden potential of footers. The approach is a fairly standard, boring and expected one with the format of (c) Date, Organization Name, All Rights Reserved." 

And then goes on:

"From a design point of view, especially for those organizations who are very brand conscious (as should all), a functional footer opens up a world of possibilities to do something a little different and unexpected and provides an easy way to re-enforce the organizations brand in creative ways! Here are some possible elements that could be used when designing a functional footer:

• Partner logos
• Key calls to action
• Breadcrumbs
• Search
• Complete sitemap
• Short blurb describing the organization's purpose
• Promotional links to podcasts, blogs, etc.
• Use of social networking/bookmarking icons
• 'thought of the day', 'Psalm of the day', 'Comment of the day'
• What we're doing, How you can help (Quick links)
• Recently updated content
• Staff or constituent profile teasers

It's a very good post with some excellent screen shots, very useful.

Read about the hidden potential of footers

Change.org launches "Jobs for Change"

Change.org has launched 

a new career service and online marketplace for social change jobs called Jobs for Change.  They've created the site in partnership with more than a dozen nonprofits, including Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, AmeriCorps Alums, Echoing Green, Network for Good, and Encore Careers.  Among other things they've hired a team of career advisors to help people find and advance a career in social change -- whether that's in the nonprofit, government, or social enterprise sectors -- and are hoping this can be a gateway for people looking to enter the sector. Their website also offers a vision statement that people can sign in support of the importance of mission-driven careers. 

Learn more about Jobs for Change

CharityHowTo.com shows you how

CharityHowTo.com is a new website that offers step-by-step video training guides for nonprofits and charities on how to use the Internet for marketing, fundraising, communications, and much more.  They're live now in a soft launch and their initial offerings are very interesting. Courses are available now on topics such as audiocasts, online maps, online photos, and blogging. What I particularly like about this presentation format is that it shows actual screen grabs with an audio narrative, a great training tool.

Costs for each video training guide currently range from $9 to $29. If you want to take a look, their free course is How to Use and Create Audiocasts - A Step-by-Step Guide for Nonprofits, and was produced by veteran nonprofit communications strategist Marc Osten. They're planning upcoming courses on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more. Also, don't miss their free informational webinars. And if you think you have the talent to create one of these video guides, contact the publisher and introduce yourself.

Visit CharityHowTo.com

All you need to know to Twitter

Paul Boutin has a good article in the New York Times on May 6 on the basics of Twitter, and it's a useful article both for newbies and aspiring experts. It covers Twitter on mobile phones, Facebook integration, search, sharing photos, and Twitter apps for your computer.

Worth a read

A Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems

Idealware and NTEN, with the support of NPower, have announced the publication of their new Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems. This report looks at 33 different donor management systems that cost less than $4,250 in the first year.  The research is broken up into two different actual reports.  The first, the Consumers Guide, outlines the functionality that donor management systems provide, summarizes each of the 33 systems, recommends useful systems for each of a set of specific scenarios, a high level comparison of 10 systems, and lists consultants who can help you select or implement software.  The second, Detailed Reviews, provides six-to-eight-page reviews of each of twelve different systems. This is one of the most useful reports I've seen in years. 

Download a copy

Getting your videos onto the Web

Michael Hoffman from See3 has written a good article on getting your videos onto the Web, published in February 2009 on Idealware.org. Online videos can be a great way to showcase your organization's mission and work - but you'll need to make sure they reach your intended audience. He discusses hosting video in the age of YouTube and reaching on online community.

Read Michael Hoffman's full article on getting your videos onto the Web

Using RSS tools to feed your information needs

Peter Campbell offers an excellent review of how best to use RSS tools to feed your information needs in an article on Idealware.org in March 2009:

"The Internet gives you access to a virtual smorgasbord of information. From the consequential to the trivial, the astonishing to the mundane, it's all within your reach. This means you can keep up with the headlines, policies, trends, and tools that interest your nonprofit, and keep informed about what people are saying about your organization online. But the sheer volume of information can pose challenges, too: namely, how do you separate the useful data from all the rest? One way is to use RSS, which brings the information you want to you. Many of the Web sites that interest you are syndicated. With RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, you subscribe to them, and when they're updated, the content is delivered to you --- much like a daily newspaper, except you choose the content. On the Web, you can not only get most of what the newspapers offer, but also additional, vital information that informs your organizational and mission-related strategies. You subscribe only to the articles and features that you want to read. It's absolutely free, and the only difficult part is deciding what to do with all the time you used to spend surfing."

Read Peter Campbell's full article on using RSS