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Top 10 Resources if You’re New to Nonprofits

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If you’re new to nonprofit communicatons, fundraising or technology , here are 10 top resources you should know about:

  1. Nonprofit Technology Network (NTen) - As a long term member, I’ve learned through webinars, local 501 tech meetings, attending the annual conference and participating in a wonderful , supportive community
  2. Idealware - Wondering what software is best for your needs?  Laura Quinn’s Idealware offers impartial reports and low priced webinars to help you decide.
  3. Beth’s Blog –  Beth Kanter taught us how important social media was before it became mainstream.  Her insights are always insightful.
  4. Nonprofit Tech 2.0: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits - Heather Mansfield offers great information in her blog, and in free/low cost webinars.
  5. Foundation Center – Databases, training, libraries focused on philanthropy.  Worth a visit if you’re in NYC (4 other offices across US)
  6. Getting Attention - Marketing guru Nancy Schwartz can help your organization develop a powerful message to your constituents
  7. John Haydon - Especially focused on Facebook, John will help optimize your social media strategy.
  8. Nonprofit Marketing Guide - Kivi Leroux Miller is a savior when you’re the only marketing / communications person at your organization;  great blog and resources.
  9. Tech Soup – Discounted software and hardware (and much more)
  10. Network for Good - Reasonably priced options for email marketing and online fundraising, and regularly scheduled training

For those nonprofit veterans, what additional resources would you add?

Why I Love Nten

Nonprofit Technology NetworkI’m a long term member of the Nonprofit Technology Network (Nten).  Here are three reasons why, just from the past week:

  1. Charity Dynamics and Nten collaborated on the Nonprofit Donor Engagement Benchmark Study, which offers fascinating insights on why your organization should strive to become your constituents’ ‘favorite’ charity, and how supporters differ in how they prefer to engage with you.
  2. At this month’s 501 Tech NYC meeting (sponsored by Nten and hosted by the NYC Foundation Center), Nten member Chris Tuttle presented 25 Tactics to Better Engage Constituents, filled with many easy to implement tips.
  3. Does your nonprofit struggle to measure the impact of your work?  Is the main reason you collect data to satisfy grant requirements?  Do you have data but then not take the time to use it when making spending/budgeting or program decisions?  According to The State of Nonprofit Data (an Nten Report prepared by Idealware), you’re not alone.  This report is well worth your time.  (Aso, see Beth Kanter’s take.)

And if you think Nten is just for techies, think again.  Many of our ongoing webinars, reports and sessions at our annual Nonprofit Technology Conference are focused on fundraising and how to communicate effectively with your constituents.  We also learn from from sharing each other’s successes and failures.   And, by the way, you won’t find friendlier people than my colleagues in the Nten community.

Hope you will consider joining Nten. It’s's a great buy to learn from others’ success (and failures), build your network and to learn how to be more effective at your nonprofit.

How Well Do You Play With Others?

kids playing together by Max MayorovThis week, a friend of mine was invited for a group interview for a prospective job, but not simply to meet many staff members but where multiple candidates would be interviewed together.  While this seemed unusual, my guess is that the organization wanted to find out how well she would work with others – not only whether she had the skills to do the job.

Also this week, See3 Communications and Darim Online announced plans to merge, as detailed here.  Mergers aren’t that unusual, but I was intrigued by how Darim explained how it had consistently collaborated with other great nonprofit organizations such as Big Duck and Idealware to enable its supporters to succeed in digital communications before deciding to join with See3.

Many of us dread mergers, worrying about how it might affect our current job.  But nonprofits can do so much more by collaborating rather than by competing.  One way to get started is to explore Nonprofit Collaboration Resources at the Foundation Center.

Most of us have been in the situation of having a job fail not because we couldn’t do it, but because we didn’t work well with the existing team.  (This is why it’s so important to meet as many people as you can during the interview process.)  For nonprofits, it’s equally important to work together with other organizations with compatible missions.  After all, it’s really about serving our clients and furthering our cause;  that’s why we’re in nonprofit.

While my friend’s ‘group interview’ is a bit unorthodox, I hope she uses it as an opportunity to show how well she can ‘play with others.’  And good luck to Darim & See3!  I know people at both organizations and they’ve done great work for our community.

Charity:Water Talks Digital Strategy at 501TechNYC Meeting

Water Changes EverythingAs presenter Paull Young mentioned during his opening remarks, it seemed only fitting yesterday to discuss Charity:Water on a day when heavy rains soaked the NYC area.  Despite the harsh weather and the scheduling of the event in mid-July, a capacity crowd attended our monthly 501 Tech NYC meeting held at the NYC Foundation Center.

Even though the organization has only existed for six years, Charity:Water has had amazing results in fundraising, and consistently raises the bar in how nonprofits should communicate with supporters.  How do they do so well?

  • blending traditional fundraising and communications functions, which many nonprofits struggle with.  Their focus isn’t only on raising money, it’s on maintaining an ongoing dialogue with constituents to demonstrate the impact of their donations
  • consistently strong videos and photography to show their work
  • an open, collaborative culture, similar to what Beth Kanter describes in the Networked Nonprofit
  • focus on positive messages, not doom and gloom about the difficulties that many people around the world have in obtaining clean water
  • ability to learn from mistakes – as Paul said, we ‘do it wrong quickly’
  • website focuses on story telling, not only on getting donations (although the money comes in anyway)

These are great ideas to take back to your organization.  As demonstrated by Paull’s enthusiasm, Charity:Water also thrives by hiring a great staff who are truly engaged in their cause, and who thrive in a flat, team-oriented culture.  We can all learn from their success.  (See also my post from last year when Paull spoke at Fundraising Day in NYC.)

Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Mobile Website

Below are some highlights from Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Mobile Website which I presented on Mar. 23 at the Foundation Center in NYC,  celebrating the launch of GrantSpace Mobile.

  • 25% of US cell phone subscribers use mobile as their only way of accessing the Web;  30% of email messages are opened first on phones
  • The best time to implement mobile is when you’re already planning to redesign your website or if you’re rolling out a new content management system (CMS)
  • For most nonprofits, mobile websites are far more beneficial than developing a mobile application, which is far more difficult for constituents to use
  • Your web content must load quickly; mobile uses will not wait for slow pages
  • Consider responsive design or using any CMS which allows you to write content once to be displayed on multiple platforms (so you don’t have to maintain many versions of your website)

(During presentation, Usablenet and Mobify were identified as good tools for a nonprofit that wants to go mobile  I would also add Mofuse for mobile content management.)

For a great look at how your mobile website should look, take a look at GrantSpace Mobile from your phone.  How does your organization’s website look on a small screen?

Thoughts After a Hurricane

It’s been an eventful week in New York.  First, we were shaken by a rare East Coast earthquake.  Then, we were faced with a Hurricane Irene which forced many of us to relocate to higher ground.  While not as severe as anticipated, this weekend’s storm has caused massive damage and electrical outages for many.  I was extremely lucky;  my thoughts are with those who are facing major clean-up efforts.

Is your nonprofit prepared for a disaster?  Care2 offers a webinar this week on Surviving and Thriving When a Crisis Hits.    And while this week’s events were a major inconvenience, find a way to Put Your Cause in the Eye of the Storm to tell stories about how your organization helps its target audience.  Here are some Tools to Help Any Nonprofit Tell Stories Online from Amy Sample Ward.

For yet another reason to use social media, read why Nonprofits Are Expected to Use Social Media During Disasters.  For many great ideas on how to implement a social media strategy at your organization, learn from Jereme Bivins in his Social Media Case Study on how the Foundation Center uses Thrive and other tools.  Per Pew Internet, 65% of Online Adults Now Use Social Networking Sites.

Most of us make presentations, but it’s always challenging to keep listeners engaged, especially when you’re on a webinar.  I participated in last week’s Nonprofits Live: Great Presentations, offered by Tech Soup.  You can watch and listen to the event here or search the #nplive hashtag on Twitter  which include many of my comments.

Help Nten to make next spring’s Nonprofit Technology Conference the best yet by tweeting your ideas to #12NTC.  Work for a really great organization?  Nominate your organization as one of the 50 Best Nonprofits to Work For In 2012.

Social Media for Social Good

This week I had the pleasure of listening to a panel of social media experts at the Foundation Center’s Social Media for Social Good event.  Speakers included Renee Alexander from US Fund for Unicef, Julia C. Smith from Idealist, Farra Trompeter from Big Duck and Nten‘s Amy Sample Ward, preceded by a presentation by Small Act‘s Casey Golden.

As might be expected during an event on social media, there was an active stream on Twitter, which you can review with the #SM4SG hashtag.  Below are some highlights:

  • Mentioned several times this week and also by Danielle Brigida who recently spoke at the NYC 501 Tech Club, social media involves a lot of trial and error and experimentation.  Often you will have to try different tactics before you find what will work best with your audience.   Don’t be afraid to fail.
  • Engagement = stimulating a conversation and encouraging constituents to take action on issues.
  • Developing a social media policy for your organization will help guide your staff how to speak about your nonprofit online – look at the social media governance policy database and the social media policy generator for help.
  • Your social media policy should be a fluid, living document that is reviewed with staff and updated regularly, not in a book that is stored on a shelf.
  • On Twitter, in addition to sharing ideas from others you find worthwhile, make sure to include your own ideas too – the best Twitter streams have a mix of links, no links and original content.  See this example of a Twitter engagement formula.
  • If your management is still uncertain whether social media is worth the effort, show what your competitors are doing online to engage and build their constituent base.

Want more resources?  For a step by step process on how to use social media, download Idealware’s Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide.  For more guidance on developing a social media policy – Big Duck’s Measuring Your Impact and Creating Policies for Social Media.  And for general tips on Twitter, read Mashable’s Twitter Guide Book

Social media is sexy, but don’t forget the online basics: make sure your website and email marketing program is in place.  Social media works best when part of an overall communications strategy that includes any way you connect with your constituents, whether online or offline.  Focus not only on your organization’s programs, but on the issues which your organization (and constituents) is most focused on.

Thanks to the Foundation Center’s Vanessa Schnaidt for moderating the discussion and to social media guru Jereme Bivins (who manages the Foundation Center’s Twitter stream) for planning this event.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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.

Online Fundraising Strategies for Tough Times

Reminder: Thursday evening, January 8, I will moderate a panel discussion at the NYC Foundation Center, Online Fundraising Strategies for Tough Times.  Guest speakers will include Allan Pressel of Charity Finders and Cristine Cronin of NY Charities.  Due to a large number of registrations, the Foundation Center has closed registration, so unfortunately you won’t be able to attend unless you’ve already signed up.  However, I will offer a follow-up webinar on Wednesday evening, January 21 on ephilanthropy strategies.  Watch for details in my next post.

Addendum 4-21-09
If you were unable to attend this event, you can now listen online at the Foundation Center’s events archive.

Upcoming Program at Foundation Center in NYC

On Thursday, January 8, 2009, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM EST, I will be moderating a program at the NYC Foundation Center, Online Fundraising Strategies for Tough Times.  My speakers will include Cristine Cronin, President of NY Charities and Allan Pressel, CEO/Founder of Charity Finders.  We will discuss ways to continue to fundraise effectively during tough economic times using online techniques.  Our target audience will be mostly small to mid sized nonprofits that already have a web site, but want to raise more money onlne.

Attendance is free, but early sign up is encouraged.  Thanks to Charlotte Dion, Director of Foundation Center’s NY Library / Learning Center,  for helping to arrange this program.

Meantime, here’s an interesting portal prepared by Nonprofit Consulting which links to a presentation and other resources on the topic we’ll be discussing next month.   Also see some Online Fundraising Myths.

Hope to see you at the Foundation Center.