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Clients thinking about doing an e-newsletter for their nonprofit organization often lament that they don't have a good list of emails and ask how to build a good list. I tell them to start with what they already have, and I have considered writing a blogpost about other strategies.
But there's no reason to, now, with this great article by Ken Mahar, who encourages readers to share his ideas. It's worth the five minutes it'll take you to read it. While his examples are from for-profit sources, the principles translate readily. |
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Recently I celebrated a birthday and, to my surprise, the first one to wish me Happy Birthday was Facebook.
Interesting. Says something about my habits (checking Facebook early on a Saturday morning) and Web 2.0. |
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I found a couple of additional resources about mobile giving that provide some easy to read articles:
What is mobile giving and how can it work for your nonprofit? Ask.com helps out.
What does Tech Soup have to say about it? The hypertext links aren't working but go to www.techsoup.org and search for "mobile giving."
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 Not too long ago I was intrigued to learn that frequent Sonic visitors receive cell phone messages informing them about specials designed just for them. So it didn't surprise me when I started hearing about "mobile giving."
As more people use text messaging, the concept of using mobile phones allow donors to make donations seems logical, if a bit jarring to those us us in the nonprofit sector who are still catching up on technology social networking applications to our work.
But rest assured, mobile giving is not just headed our way--it's here. One othe earliest uses was an m-Qube partnerhip with US wireless carriers after the Katrina and Asian Pacific tsunami. Mobile giving allowed people to make small donations through their mobile devices, with the donations going through their regular carrier billing system. It was also used by the United Way during the Super Bowl to encourage donations to their Youth Fitness Program.
Now there is a nonprofit set up to remove some of the barriers needed to make this easy, cost effective and accessible for other causes. The Mobile Giving Foundation also lists PBS as one of its clients. Read an interview with founder, Jim Manis.
And, since this organization has been set up as a nonprofit, you can donate to their work. And what's on their donation page? A form that asks for your cell phone number, of course.
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On this rainy Saturday morning I've been surfing to see what new charitable blogs are out there and what they're talking about. Following the trail from blog to blog, I soon learned that the Chronicle on Philanthropy has compiled a nice list called Give & Take. They call it "A roundup of blogs about the nonprofit world."
So I poked around this list and noticed one of many with the name "charity" in the title. Click and I was there and the first thing I noticed, right at the top of the page, was an advertisement for penis enlargment. Yikes.
If you're blogging in this realm, you might want to pay the little extra cost to get an ad-free blog. It's not that pricey.
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At a workshop today I learned about some really wonderful tools that Google has made available for nonprofits. Check them out at www.google.com/nonprofits.
As Web 2.0 tools they're free and easily adaptable to websites, blogs, social networking sites. One caught my attention right away. A volunteer nonprofit I'm chairman of this year currently has a fee attached to its "shopping cart" for fee payments. I learned that, through Google Checkout, we can provide the same service without charging a fee.
Google Calendar also looks promising for this group. Since this nonprofit offers classes in French, Italian and Spanish during a nine month calendar, we can certainly use this tool and are certain to try it out. |
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An unlikely place to experience the future of nonprofit volunteer engagement is a political website.
If you want to try out social networking, are a political junkie, or are just curious, consider checking out Barak Obama's website: www.barakobama.com. This is not an Obama promo, although you'll certainly get a peek at slick campaign strategy.
For a great comparison, do the same on John McCain's site. They make draw your own conclusions about how and when social networking works (and doesn't).
Obama's site (designed by a Facebook founder) invites you to join and receive regular emails. Not much new in that, although I'm finding new, interesting strategy and tone in their emails. But that's another post.
But take a step further. Set up a profile and get welcomed into the world of 200,000 plus "friends" of the candidate and a social network that blows your socks off. When you sign into "My Bo" (that does bother me a bit), you get your own Dashboard where you can find events in your neighborhood, create an event and invite others, find ways to volunteer--you get the idea.
You also get reinforced for taking part. You get a point when you sign in each time. Five points for hooking up with a friend (I have three--friends that is). It sounds a bit hokey at first, but think about the reinforcing value of this, used as a volunteer engagement strategy for your nonprofit.
Today I signed in and learned about their new tool: Neighbor to Neighbor. I can get a list of undecided voters in my neighborhood, a map, flyer and script. And off I can go to make conversions.
Learn how Obama did this, with help from Chris Hughes, one of the four founders of Facebook. |
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Two home pages are worth a thousand blog posts. If you're still thinking that nonprofit mission statements belong on home pages, visit these two sites and decide for yourself:
Malaria Foundation International
Malaria No More
I ended up visiting these sites after hearing Larry Rose interview Peter Chernin, COO of News Corporation. There was a fascinating discussion of Chernin's work (which includes leading a corporation that includes the Fox News, several newspapers, 20th Century Fox, and MySpace, among others).
Toward the end of the show, Chernin discussed his philanthropic passion. He is co-founder (with Ray Chambers) and now chairman of Malaria No More. His sincere commitment to his charitable work and their pssion about ending a major killer of children propelled me to my laptop to visit their website.
However, I forgot the website name, and went, mistakenly, to www.malaria.org. SCREECHING HALT to my excitement and interest. This couldn't be the site of the program I had heard so movingly described.
Well, it wasn't. And, luckily I persisted , Googling "Peter Chernin + malaria" and up popped the RIGHT site. And did it ever meet my expectations. Plus, what a perfect example of what I was talking about in my July 21 post.
Which mission moves you to get involved?
Goodness. If you needed a modern day example of Steve Krug's #1 rule, this is IT.
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After being part of several social networks for the past month or so, I'm quickly learning some lessons that nonprofits might consider before diving in to this arena:
First: You, yourself, have to be part of these networks before you can effectively understand how to make your nonprofit part of this world. I sensed this intuitively (hence my setting up a Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn profile). But since doing that, I've read that same advice in several blogs and tech articles where those more experienced than I are talking about this.
Second: If you're an uninitiated executive director who has returned from a nonprofit conference all atwit about using social networking for fundraising, cease and desist immediately. You may eventually be able to raise money through social networking, but that's not the place to start. Think relationship building, buzz building, listening and learning from your constituents.
Third: You can learn a lot from what others are doing before you jump in, make mistakes and toss out the baby with the bath water. Poke around and see what's happening. But, to do that well, return to the first suggestion above. You'll have to be part of some networks to see the extent of what's happening. |
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This summer I decided to focus on learning more about community building, or social networking, sites. Many nonprofits are using them to build relationships, spread the word, build the buzz and even raise money. And if they're not using them now, they're thinking about it.
So I completed the LinkedIn profile I had began, somewhat half-heartedly, awhile back, created a MySpace and a Facebook profile. I "invited" some friends and sat back to see what came next. It didn't take long.
The first thing that surprised me was that people "found me." It seemed magical until I learned the tools for searching for and finding friends. Soon the tools were giving me hints at how to find "friends." A list of new members from the two universities where I received degrees from. Friends of friends ("shared friends"). How to use your address book.
Then I got some emails from people I hadn't heard from in awhile. And a couple of 30-something nieces and nephews began to write and share family photos (which wasn't happening through regular emails).
The next surprising thing is--I'm having fun. There's a key. It's fun. Hmmmm. There may be something to this.
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