Michael Stein: Internet Strategy for the Nonprofit Sector

See3 Guide to Online Video

See3 Communications has published a wonderful Guide to Online Video, a 7-part video series created as an introduction to online video for nonprofits. For beginners, this is your chance to get started. And for the experts out there, this is an easy tool to share with your less web-centric colleagues to get everyone on the same page.  Here's a run-down of the video series:

1. The World We Live In: Today the web fully supports video. And that requires a new paradigm for how you think about video, how you document your work, and how you reach out to your constituents.
2. Why Video Matters: Video breaks through the noise of everything that’s happening on the web. Video is the most compelling content on the web today, and it’s the content people are spending the most time with.
3. Building A Media Library: If your organization doesn’t have a camera, you need to go out and buy one today. Then you need to start capturing the important things you do and build a media library that you can reuse and repurpose.
4. Finding Your Story: There are millions of stories you can tell about your organization. But how do you make it personal to your viewers, and how do you bring passion and energy to the stories you want to tell?
5. Telling Your Story:Start by asking yourself a handful of basic questions. Then consider the best way to communicate this story to your audience. What form will it take? Documentary? Man-on-the-street? PSA?
6. Using Video Effectively: Everyone wants a “viral video”, but random people watching your video may not necessarily become donors or advocates for you. Thinking about video in terms of campaigns will help you retain audience and deepen engagement.
7. Marketing Your Campaign: You have a great campaign, but how do you reach the right people online? Map the community and join the conversations already taking place all over the web. Tell them about your cause and drive them to your microsite to learn more and take action. 

Visit the See3 Guide to Online Video

Building a website with hosted, integrated platforms

Laura Quinn from Idealware penned an excellent article back in July 2008 about building websites with hosted platforms which I recommend as a great summary of options, especially for organizations on a tight budget.  She writes:

"With these packages, you pay a monthly fee and get access to an online tool that helps you to build and update your site. The vendor takes care of all the installation and maintenance of the software, is available to answer your questions, and often provides a lot of support and guidance to help you setup your site. In addition, the packages in this section offer nonprofit-specific functionality, such as online donations and event registration, and help you to not only manage your Web site but also your entire list of constituents."

Read the complete article

PeacePrimary.org wins Convio Innovator Award for best online fundraising campaign

Congratulations are due to my colleagues at The Ploughshares Fund, who were honored this week with the Innovator Award from Convio as the best online fundraising campaign of the year for its Peace Primary project.  I'm honored to have played a role as an Internet Strategist for the project.

The Web software company Convio that powers many nonprofit websites announced the winners of its second annual Innovator Awards, recognizing clients' creative use of Convio's online marketing, fundraising and advocacy solutions.  The announcement was made at its annual Convio Client Summit held in Austin.

Twelve groups are sharing in an amazing $327,000 raised from thousands of voters in the first-ever Peace Primary. The Vermont-based TrueMajority garnered the most votes and came away with the grand prize of a $100,000 grant from Ploughshares Fund. Every other group experienced a fundraising boost at this critical time, and most came away with new members and new donors. The Peace Primary was a campaign to promote a "peace platform" for the election season, and to commemorate two major milestones at Ploughshares Fund – their 25th anniversary, and the fifty millionth dollar awarded to organizations and individuals around the world. Each vote cost $1, with a ten vote minimum and 1,000 vote maximum per group.  Voters were encouraged to vote for as many groups as they can in order to generate a comprehensive peace platform that encompasses the most important issues, whether it’s the war in Iraq, nuclear weapons, Darfur or global conflict.   

Browse the complete list of Innovator Awards recipients

eAdvocacy alternatives to Kintera

Idealware has a regular item on its blog called "Ask Idealware" where nonprofit techies can ask tough questions that are on their mind.  Recently, a reader sent in a good question asking about eAdvocacy alternatives to Kintera:

"We're an all volunteer 501c4 that has been using Kintera. We would greatly appreciate suggestions of other service providers. We talked to Democracy in Action but they only help c3's. We do action alerts on state and local issues that enables our readers to send email to officials like the Governor, state legislators, city councils, and county commissions. We can segment the list and target specific geographic regions, and we're able to provide copy for the readers to send as well."

Heather Gardner-Madras of Gardner Madras Strategic Creative takes a crack at the answer and it's worth a read.

Internet strategy on the cheap

My friends Britt Bravo of the Have Fun Do Good Blog and Eric Leland of Leland Design presented in October 2008 on "Internet Strategy on the Cheap" at the San Francisco Bay Area Nonprofit Boot Camp organized by the Craigslist Foundation.  They compiled a list of Tools and Resources to share with participants, and have published the list on Britt's blog.  Thanks, useful list!

Building your donor base on Facebook: The Nature Conservancy

My friend and online alter ego Michael Stein (yes, there is another!) offered a useful write-up way back in July 2008 about The Nature Conservancy's use of Facebook for fundraising.  Michael writes:

There's been a lot of excitement in the last year about social networking in general, and about Facebook in particular. And a lot of talk about the value of social networking for non-profits. But is there really a return on investment for non-profit participation on these sites? Here's a success story.  The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a 501(c)3 organization that works in the U.S. and over 30 other countries to protect ecologically important lands and waters. Using tools readily available on Facebook, the organization has raised almost $48,000 in the first six months of their social-networking effort. They did this by creating a Cause and a Fan Page for the org, and by forming a relationship with an ecology oriented game on Facebook, (lil) Green Patch. Six months later the (lil) Green Patch application is one of the most popular on Facebook, with of 6 million users!

Read the full article

MC Yogi: Obama '08 - Vote for Hope

2008 Nonprofit Software Development Summit coming to Oakland, Nov 17-19

Once again Aspiration is organizing its Nonprofit Software Development Summit and this year is shaping up to be another magical convergence of folks creating technology for social change. The event is taking place in Oakland, California, on Nov 17-19, 2008. Are you a developer writing code to support nonprofit needs? Are you a nonprofit user with strong opinions about what software you need developed to empower your programs and operations? Are you someone who just cares about seeing better technology developed to address the broad range of issues we face as a global community?  The 2008 Nonprofit Software Development Summit will be the second annual convening of people and organizations developing software tools, web applications and other technology to support social justice causes. Bringing together a diverse range of developers, technologists, managers, eRiders, integrators, users and other practitioners who self-identify under the umbrella of roles around "developing nonprofit software", the 2008 DevSummit will provide an opportunity both to gather as a community and to take stock of the field, while building connections and capacity.

Learn more about the 2008 Nonprofit Software Development Summit

The basics of email metrics: Are your campaigns working?

You already know the value a good email campaign can bring to your nonprofit, whether it is an eNewsletter, or email advocacy and fundraising appeals. But how can you tell if your electronic communications are actually having the impact you hoped for? Is the work you're putting in worth the effort? Email metrics can help you determine the effectiveness of your communications and fine tune them to improve their efficiency. This excellent article by Idealware (disclosure: I'm on the Board), explains how to use basic email metrics to understand how your constituents are reacting to your emails. It also talks through the data points needed to track email performance, the most common formulas for standard email metrics, what they can tell you, and how to use them to improve results.

Read Idealware's article on The Basics of Email Metrics

Jacob Nielsen on transactional email and confirmation messages

Jacob Nielsen is my guru of online usability.  He studies and tests all types of online usability such as website home pages design, navigation styles, e-newsletter design, landing page design, forms on e-commerce, to name but a few.  His latest e-update discusses transactional email and confirmation messages, these sometimes useful and sometimes annoying messages we get from nonprofits, e-commerce services, e-auctions, and others, delivering information about online transactions that have just occurred.  Nielsen encourages us to avoid or minimize message sequences, only tell users what they need to know, and to build trust through the transaction email.

His last sentence is powerful: "Confirmation email and other automated transactional messages are great for connecting a website with its customers and for closing the loop in e-commerce and other transactions. Just remember: Email is a user interface. Design your messages accordingly, aiming for maximum usability."

Email is a user interface.  I wish more organizations understood this.

Read Jacob Nielsen's article on transactional email and confirmation messages