Michael Stein: Internet Strategy for the Nonprofit Sector

Cragmont Elementary School and the Internet

A group of parents that have kids in the Berkeley Unified School District got together on December 10, 2009, to share best practices about how Internet tools are being used at the various schools in the district.  I was there representing Cragmont Elementary School where my two kids go to school, and discussed our efforts:

• This year we created an Internet Team composed of five technically-minded parents to push forward various projects.

• We're currently revamping the Cragmont PTA website and are moving it to a new Web-based hosting platform called WebSchoolPro.com.  We have a January 2010 launch date for the new site.

• We moved to Google Apps to create email lists for all the 20 classes at Cragmont and manage this for all parents, teachers and room parent volunteers.  Over 350 parents are now on those lists which is about 75% of the parent population.
• We're talking internally about using a Web-based database such as Salesforce.com to store the PTA parent database to better manage fundraising, communications, volunteer tracking, and creating a school directory.
• We manage an official school e-tree called Cragnet which has about 350 parents, teachers and staff subscribers.  It's run on Netpals software made available for free by LSoft.com.

• We've soft-launched a Facebook Page for the Cragmont PTA which will go live in January 2010.  On this Facebook Page we enforce all BUSD policies on photo and video privacy, and the page is moderated by the PTA.

• We've soft-launched a Twitter feed for the Cragmont PTA which will go live in January 2010.

Tis the season for email fundraising

My inbox is already deluged with year-end email fundraising appeals from just about every nonprofit organization who I've opted in to receive email from.  Admittedly, I encourage every nonprofit to use the year-end to solicit online gifts, so I'm not complaining.  (I'm currently helping three organizations with their year-end appeal campaigns.)  Idealware has just published an excellent article on this very topic, in case you need a quick study or a refresher course.  Getting Started with Email Fundraising by Andrea Berry covers all the tools and techniques to succeed with your email fundraising strategy. The article covers the following themes:

• Define your strategy and story
• Formulate a plan
• Start by defining your campaign goals
• Consider the appropriate length for your campaign
• Create your team
• Craft a message that gets results
• Design Your Flow of Emails
• Build an Email List
• Write Effective Emails
• Choose a Broadcast Email Tool
• Choose a Donation Tool
• Measure Your Success

While you're reading this excellent (and free) article, consider making a gift to the Idealware Research Fund to help them further their mission to publish software and strategy reviews.

Read Getting Started With Email Fundraising

The Idealware Research Fund needs our help

Regular readers of this blog will know my great fondness for Idealware, an outstanding nonprofit organization whose mission is to publish candid reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits. Through product comparisons, recommendations, webinars, case studies, and software news, Idealware allows nonprofits to make the software decisions that will help them be more effective.  My fondness for Idealware led me to join their Board for several years (I no longer serve on the Board) and I make it my professional mission to spread the word about them.

One of Idealware's biggest challenges is to maintain a high level of independence in their reporting, and I'm delighted to hear that they've launched the Idealware Research Fund to provide basic, pooled funding for the great work that they do, keeping it independent, unbiased, and resourced.  Their goal is to raise $15,000 by December 31, so please support the Idealware Research Fund and you'll provide thousands of nonprofits with information about the software choices that can transform their work.

Support the Idealware Research Fund

Who sees your digital data? Watch this new ACLU video

When you learn, share, shop, and connect online, a lot happens behind the scenes that companies and the government don't want you to know. The sites that you visit can collect detailed information about you - your interests, politics, relationships, and more. This information can be shared, sold, or handed over to a snooping government - without a warrant.

The ACLU's new Demand Your dotRights Campaign will give you a look behind the curtain to see what's really happening to your personal info.

They've produced a fantastic new video to see what you can do right now to take back control and keep details about your private life from being used and abused.

And in case you haven't already, check out What Do Quizzes Really Know About You? on Facebook.  It'll change your mind about Facebook.

7 tips for measuring the success of your blog

Beth Kanter offered an excellent blog post on October 8 on measuring the success of your blog, which will be useful to any individual or organization that is blogging today.  Beth writes:

The success of your blog, or any social media effort, depends on your willingness to solicit feedback and take corrective action when necessary. If you want to have a successful blog that supports your organization’s goals and adds value, improvement should be continuous. You need to pick the right hard data points, or metrics, that will help you harvest insights and improve your blog.

Beth's key items on measuring success are:

• Readership growth
• Reader engagement
• Reader bookmarking
• Conversation rate
• Authority
• Page views
• Industry index

I particularly liked her point about the "conversation rate," which refers to the type of comments and discussion that occur on your blog.  For example, is there a conversation happening between people who comment, and what do you do to facilitate it?

Read Beth's full post

Ning for Dummies educates and inspires

Online social networks have had a profound influence on the lives of millions around the world, as people congregate on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to share snippets about themselves along with photos, videos and music.  The social network platform known as Ning may not be as recognizable a name, but its influence has been profound.  Ning is a free social networking platform that is highly customizable and can be used to develop a private or public online community.  The new book Ning for Dummies by Manny Hernandez is an outstanding contribution to the field of online community.  It stands out in my mind because this is not merely a technical guide for using a very powerful piece of software, but an organizing guide on how to get people engaged with each other online.  In the age of Facebook and Twitter, this book is a treasure trove of wisdom about how to fuel online discussions, how to invite people to join social networks, how to add photos, videos and music files to social networks, how to rate online content, and much more.

Manny Hernandez is a social entrepreneur and a community strategist committed to connecting people touches by diabetes and raising diabetes awareness.  He started out as a community advocacy for Ning, and is now President of the Diabetes Hands Foundation, a nonprofit that runs two social networks for people touched by diabetes: TuDiabetes.com (in English) and EsTuDiabetes.com (in Spanish).  Both social networks run on Ning.

My video on raising money online

I helped produce a training video this Summer for CharityHowTo.com on the subject of raising money online entitled E-mail Fundraising: Best Practices, Strategies, and Pitfalls to Avoid.  CharityHowTo.com publishes content in video format and lets the narrative flow with screencasting tools that do screen grabs and zooms, integrate PowerPoint slides, and include audio narration.  I did not do the narration for this video (as many observant colleagues have dutifully noted), but I can take credit for the online fundraising strategies and most of the examples used in this video.  The video gives away the store on email fundraising benchmarks, multi-part email appeals, online video fundraising, landing pages, email list segmentation, tools for email messaging, and lots more.  The video costs $30 to watch in its entirety, runs 52 minutes (you can watch a 7 minute preview) and can be watched again and again for up to a year.  And I get a commission if you click any of the links in this email and purchase it.

Watch the video preview of E-mail Fundraising: Best Practices, Strategies, and Pitfalls to Avoid

8 ways nonprofits can use blogs

Blogger, consultant and career coach Britt Bravo has an excellent post on her blog on eight ways nonprofits can use blogs:

1. Share your expertise
2. Share breaking news within your field
3. Share the story behind your brand
4. Share your community's opinions
5. Share notes and photos from events
6. Share notes and photos from the field
7. Share organizational news as it happens
8. Use it as your website

The best part about her article is that she annotates each point with examples and links.

Read the full article

Using mobile technology to influence health reform

Mobile Commons reported in mid-August on an article in Mobile Marketer that looked at how mobile technology was being used to help pass health care reform legislation. Labor unions, large national advocacy groups, small local non-profits, and faith-based community organizations are using mobile to reach out to their supporters around the issue of health care reform.

Here's a sampling of how Mobile Commons customers have been using mobile technology around this critical issue:

* NARAL Pro Choice sent messages to thousands of people, urging them to sign an online petition to keep anti-choice extremism out of health care legislation bills
* LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan sent a recorded audio message to union members asking for their help passing healthcare reform Bill 3200
* True Majority sent a text message broadcast asking people to call their Senators before they went on summer recess and pass health care reform
* PACT in San Jose used SMS to organize supporters on the ground and get them to a press conference at Congresswoman Lofgren’s office
* Center for Community Change has sent hundreds of thousands of calls to the White House and Congress over immigration issues, including health care reform. They’ve also targeted Congresswoman Pelosi directly, urging her to end the 5 year ban on immigrant health care
* The League of Young Voters in Maine used SMS to organize supporters on the ground, getting people to meet at Monument Square in Portland to fight for health care reform
* PICO National Networks sent SMS invitations, both in English and in Spanish, to a web site where users could listen in on a call between President Obama and the Faith Community. Over 140,000 people joined the call

Read the full Mobile Commons article

Is integrated fundraising for real?

Nick Allen from Donordigital answers this challenging question in this month's online edition of the Mal Warwick Newsletter:

 "Integration of online and direct mail fundraising has been a staple topic of development conferences for at least five years now. So it’s time to separate the results from the hype. Yes, of course you should seek to integrate your mail and online programs, and the larger the programs, the more upside for integration. Of course, you want to enable your supporters to donate by whatever channel they choose for a given gift—the BRE, the donation page on your site, or plain unmarked bills delivered to your door. While online giving has grown significantly over the last five years, most donors still give by mail. Just 9% of donors came in online in the most recent evaluation of 12 national organizations, but they account for 21% of new-donor revenue because of much higher gift levels. The online donors are younger and have higher household income (because they’re working, not retired)."

Read the complete article