nptech.info

pAuthor: Jordan Viator/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/jordan-viator-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pRapid response is a top-of-mind topic for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes right now. Earlier this year Molly posted a href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2010/january/7-tips-to-haiti-relief.html" target="_blank"7 quick tips to taking action quickly in times of need/a and numerous other resources and learningsnbsp;have been put out since with the issue at top of mind for nonprofits and charities around the world (see: a href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/20/social-media-lessons-haiti/" target="_blank"5 Social Media Lessons From the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort/anbsp;by Geoff Livingston, a href="http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2010/01/helping-haiti-places-to-donate-creative.html" target="_blank"Helping Haiti: Places to Donate, Creative Fundraising Ideas and Being a Smart Donor/a by Britt Bravo, a href="http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2010/02/how-to-communicate-in-the-shadow-of-disaster-nonprofit-marketing.html" target="_blank"How to Communicate in the Shadow of Disaster -- Guidelines for Respectful but Effective Outreach by Nancy Schwartz/a, a href="http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fundraising/a/mobilegivingtakesoff.htm" target="_blank"The Social Media Response to Disaster in Haiti/anbsp;by Amy Sample Ward and a href="http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fundraising/a/mobilegivingtakesoff.htm" target="_blank"Text-to-Give Fundraising Campaigns Take Off/a by Joanne Fritz amongst others)nbsp;/p pBeing prepared for an unforeseen surge of donations is something every nonprofit should be positioned for, and the swell of attention doesnrsquo;t need to come only from a natural disaster. Unanticipated press coverage and subsequent attention on your cause can be the result of change of law or a courtrsquo;s ruling. It may even be as simple yet unexpected as a pop culture figure bringing an issue to the forefront through controversy. The lesson far too many nonprofits learn the hard way is how to be prepared for unplanned events./p pIn a follow-up piece to Mollyrsquo;s original 7 quick tips, a href="http://www.convio.com/signup/rapid-response/rapid-response.html" target="_blank"stronga new guide entitled ldquo;Be Prepared When Your Mission Callsrdquo; is now available/strong/anbsp;with an in-depth look at rapid response preparedness and case studies on nonprofits that have leveraged the best practices outlined here to maximize fundraising and outreach success in times of need.nbsp; /p pA few of the top takeaways from the guide include:/p pstronga href="http://www.convio.com/signup/rapid-response/rapid-response.html" target="_blank"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/be-prapared-lg.png" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 5px;" alt="Nonprofit Rapid Response " //aRespond Quickly/strong - When communicating during times of crisis, simplicity and effectiveness are far more important than design or prose.nbsp; A straight-forward communication will help your supporters understand your organizationrsquo;s position to the crisis and how they can support your efforts./p pA quick response requires a quick setup ndash; the more time you spend on approving messaging is less time you have to harness the energy and interest around your cause. Plan and prepare to the best of your ability so that you can respond rapidly./p pstrongAdjust Your Message/strong - Sometimes messaging around an event requires sensitivity. But donrsquo;t let that inhibit your creativity to turn this concentration of awareness into something positive for your organization./p pFor example, a href="http://www.pollyklaas.org/" target="_blank"The Polly Klaas Foundation/a,nbsp; a national nonprofit committed to promoting child safety, demonstrated a unique way to adjust its message to help with emergency response while remaining true to their mission.nbsp; In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, the Polly Klaas Foundation sent an email to their house file urging people to donate to specific international disaster relief agencies that ldquo;focus on protecting children who have been separated from their families, and helping those children reunite with family members.rdquo; This was an exceptional example of an organization finding a creative way to further their mission and adjust to a disaster despite the fact that donations would support other organizations./p pstrongKnow the Plan/strong - Working quickly sometimes is accompanied by haphazard decision making. The unintended fallout of such mistakes can be missed opportunities, offended donors or worse, PR problems. The number one mistake any organization can make is not having the right message on the right donation form at the right time. Planning for these events and knowing your anticipated response helps you to minimize the opportunity for error and maximize your capacity to seize the benefits a media spotlight can provide./p pa href="http://www.convio.com/signup/rapid-response/rapid-response.html" target="_blank"The Guide/a outlines the above best practices in detail, provides additional best practices and tactics to follow and offers examples from nonprofit peers highlighting successful ways they've followed the guide's tips./p pHave any other lessons learned or tips to add to the list? Know of an organization who exemplifies how to respond rapidly in times of need? Share them here so the nonprofit community can be better prepared the next time the need arises. /pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=NiqrifnDcxg:2N6ja5FOvbY:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Tad Druart/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/tad-druart-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / p style="text-align: left;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"As I look back at my communicationrsquo;s and development career technology has changed the way I work - I remember the days when we had a major product launch and had teams of people in New York and Washington D.C. the morning of the announcement to "run" the press releases to the key media outlets/reporters. Technology has changed all that. I can hit the send button and send the press release to everyone who wants it at the same time. My mobile phonersquo;s GPS has also changednbsp;getting me to the right place mostly on time. Because of technology reporters are no longer confined to the publisherrsquo;s building ndash; my last press tour took me to the homes of reporters in three small towns for kitchen table product demos. (With virtual meeting tools and video conferencing, wersquo;re even doing less of that.) As an event fundraiser, I remember fighting for walkie-talkies during fundraising events, just to stay in touch with my co-workers and volunteers. Do you remember how hard it was to get in touch with a key volunteer once they headed home for the evening... (Man Irsquo;m old ndash; two miles up hill, both ways through the snow kind of old.)/span/spanspan style="font-size: small;" /span/span/p p style="text-align: left;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"Of all the communication technology the mobile phone is probably as disruptive as any... I noticed last night how it has changed dating for my teenage daughter. /span/span/p p style="text-align: left;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"As a father, I like the fact that when my daughter and her boyfriend are sitting together on the couch they continue to text friends, while they talk with each other and watch TV ndash; I encourage the keeping of hands on mobile devices at all times. Hadnbsp;a href="http://www.brucecameron.com/columns/8rules.htm"W. Bruce Cameron's/abook a href="http://www.brucecameron.com/columns/8rules.htm""8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter"/a been written today, wersquo;d add a chapter about the benefits of boyfriends who continue to text friends while on dates with onersquo;s daughter. Thatrsquo;s probably a better story for a post on fatherhood though. But I digress.../span/span/p p style="text-align: left;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"The most recent development with mobile technology is that of a giving platform. In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake close to $50 million was given through this channel. Although gift amounts were limited to $5 to $10 dollars an estimated 6.5 million people used their cell phone to donate. This was unprecedented level of giving through this channel and might mark the tipping point for greater adoption./span/span/p dirdir/dir/dir p pspan style="font-size: x-small;"span style="font-size: x-small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"We teamed with a href="http://www.edgeresearch.com/"Edge Research/a anda href="http://seachangestrategies.com/blog/home/"Sea Change Strategies/a on a national survey of US charitable donors conducted one week after the earthquake in Haiti, and during intense fundraising efforts for emergency relief ndash; this is part of a broader study that will be released in the coming days on the contrasting charitable habits of Gen Y, Gen X, Baby Boomers and Matures to provide the nonprofit sector with insights on cultivating the next generation of American donors.(This is the same team that gave us thenbsp;a href="http://www.convio.com/files/GD_WiredWealthy_Report.pdf"ground-breaking research on the "Wired Wealthy.")/a/span/span/span/span/p /p p p pspan style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"Here are some of the span style="text-decoration: underline;"key findings/span./span/spanspanspan style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"nbsp;/span/span/span/p ul li value="0"spanspan style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"77 percent of respondents were aware of the Haiti text-to-donate efforts/span/span/span/li li value="0"spanspan style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"/span/span/spanspan style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"17 percent of Gen Y respondents and 14 percent of Gen X made a donation to Haiti relief efforts via text message, and 3 percent of both Boomer and Mature respondents made a donation to Haiti relief efforts via text message/span/span/span/li li value="0"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"/span/span/spanspan style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"28 percent of respondents with a mobile Facebook application texted a gift/span/span/spannbsp;/li li value="0"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"Generally speaking, 15 percent of all respondents were willing to donate via text message after an emergency occurs and 11 percent were willing to donate via text message if a friend is raising money/span/span/span/li li value="0"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"Just three percent of donors say that they received a text/SMS message from their top charities this year/span/span/li li value="0"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"/span/spanspan style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-size: small;"However, those who have received informationnbsp;from a top charity through text/SMS, feel that it is an important way to stay in touch with the charities they care about (71% say it is important). /span/span/span/span/li /ul /p /p pspan style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"nbsp;/span/span/spanspan style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"You can download the full study at: /span/span/spana href="http://www.convio.com/mobile2010"span style="color: #0000ff; font-size: x-small;"span style="font-size: small;"span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"www.convio.com/mobile2010/span/span/span/aspan style="font-size: small;" /span/p pspan style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"When you look at this data, the results Conviorsquo;s clients are having online with fundraising, advocacy and other forms of engagement, the segmentation and donor relations pathways that are now available through open database systems like Convio Common Ground, allnbsp;tied to modern technology it is an exciting time to be part of this sector. While the economy is having a negative impact, it is also driving innovation as people look for more efficient and effective ways to operate their organizations, to reach and cultivate donors and spread the word about their causes./span/span/p pspan style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"The only certainty we face is change and those that embrace change will be best positioned for the future. We must adapt to change, to data intensive applications and new technologies that push us in new directions and beyond our comfort zone./span/span/p pspan style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"span style="font-size: small;"Now, its' time to send an "REI" text to my daughter as shersquo;s upstairs watching TV with her boyfriend. What does REI stand for? Itrsquo;s dad for "response expected immediately." Much like mobile fundraising ndash; donation expected immediately...oh how the world has changed. /span/span/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=PaG8P2-Zz3k:lg0VlA-Xz60:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Lacey Kruger/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/lacey_kruger-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spanYesterday, a href="http://www.safekids.org" target="_blank"Safe Kids Worldwide/anbsp;launched a brand new website. During the redesign process, Safe Kids worked with Convio to conduct significant user research to ensure the new site would meet the needs of their various audiences. The new site looks great and is much easier to use than the previous version - nice job Safe Kids!/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spannbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spanOn the heels of a previous post I wrote about "a href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2009/november/10-commandments.html" target="_blank"The 10 commandments of effective homepage design/a", I thought I'd compare the old Safe Kids homepage to the new one along the lines of those commandments. Here's a look back at the previous homepage.../span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spannbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spannbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spanimg height="610" src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/sk_ss.jpg" width="642" alt="sk_screenshot" /nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spannbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanI. Thou shalt clearly state who you are and what do you./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanThe old homepage did convey who Safe Kids is with a nice tagline and a photo of the child in a carseat. The new site, however, provides an even stronger message about who Safe Kids is with a more descriptive tagline and larger photographs of happy children./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /II. Thou shalt be able to point to where your top 3-5 online goals are represented on the homepage./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanSome of Safe Kids's online goals include capturing email addresses and increasing donations. Unlike the previous site, the email sign-up is now available on every page in the new site. The homepage also includes a "Donate Now" promotion below the left navigation./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /III. Thou shalt offer clear, concise navigation./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanSafe Kids previous navigation was confusing and not tuned towards Parents, who are their primary audience. The new navigation not only offers clear and concise options in the left nav, it also offers audience-specific options in the top tabs in case a user identifies specifically with one group./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /IV. Thou shalt provide scannable, up-to-date content that entices visitors to click for more./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanSafe Kids new homepage offers dynamically updated content under "What's New" and also under "Product Recalls", which are very popular among visitors of their website. The previous site offered up-to-date content, but it was not easily scannable and trailed down the length of the page./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /V. Thou shalt dedicate space to each of your audience groups./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanThe previous website did not offer any cues or entry points for each audience group, but the new site provides tabs for each one, which allows Safe Kids to consolidate relevant information in an audience-specific way./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /VI. Thou shalt convey a visual hierarchy so visitors know where to look and what to do first. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanThe old web site included several promotional items on the right side that tended to compete for attention. The new site has a clear visual hierarchy that points first to the rotating feature area and also the options below "How You Can Help" with the icons used in that section./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /VII. Thou shalt include 3-4 ways for visitors to engage./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanThe "How You Can Help" section on the new homepage offers, at a glance, a listing of ways users can get involved today. The old website did offer ways to get involved, but they were scattered about and difficult to locate./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /VIII. Thou shalt avoid the Flash intro or any other gratuitous animation./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanThe new web site does include a rotating feature graphic, but it is not intrusive and does provide the most important content on the page./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /IX. Thou shalt make sure most relevant content is above the fold./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanThe old homepage scrolled for pages and pages. The new homepage does offer all navigation and the feature area above the fold, along with headlines for the rest of the content so that users know there is more to see./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 5pt 0in;"spanbr /X. Thou shalt balance meaningful content with relevant supporting graphics/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spanThe old homepage was text-heavy, with very few graphics. The new site offers more imagery, which is all supported by relevant content and/or calls to action./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spannbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"spanAll-in-all, the new website abides by the "10 Commandments" and is a great showcase of how user research can really pay off when redesigning your site. Way to go Safe Kids!/span/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=aL8OgGRj5Nc:zOMr1fk85Pw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Emma Zolbrod/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/emma-zolbrod-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pAn obvious place to sign up for an email newsletter. A well placed donation button. A prominent photo that conveys your mission. Irsquo;ve seen how these tactics can boost the results of a nonprofitrsquo;s website, but therersquo;s plenty more that organizations can do on this front. These top five lessons serve as a good starting point for evaluating the effectiveness of your organizationrsquo;s website./p h3Top 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Evaluating Your Websitersquo;s Effectiveness a href="http://www.convio.com/signup/resolutions-2010/" target="_blank"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/tapemeasure-1.jpg" style="float: right;" alt="Tapemeasure small" //a/h3 pa href="http://www.convio.com/signup/resolutions-2010/" target="_blank"/a1.nbsp;strongBack to the basics/strong. Does your homepage cover essential points that meet the basic needs of your websitersquo;s visitors? To see how good a job yoursquo;re doing at providing this critical information, ask yourself a few questions. Who are we? What are we trying to accomplish with our site? Do we proudly display our tagline, which clearly summarizes what our organization does? If your homepage answers these key questions, then yoursquo;re on the right track. br /br /2.nbsp;strongTell a compelling story and tell it well/strong. Whose lives are you affecting? How are you making a difference? Clearly communicate these details on your homepage if you want to convince a visitor to become engaged with your organization. If a visitor understands how their involvement could make a difference, then they are more likely to dig a little deeper and might even give you their email address, make a donation, take action, or volunteer. br /br /3.nbsp;strongItrsquo;s never too early to start building a relationship/strong. Does your content try to address the masses, or does it target the major audiences you want to reach? Hopefully, it does the latter. Your website content needs to be structured in a way that meets the information needs of these different audiences. Think in terms of personas, each with its own detailed demographic information, description, online habits, and needs as they pertain to the programs and services your organization provides. br /br /4.nbsp;strongKeep it fresh/strong. Are you presenting website visitors with content that is timely? Are you refreshing it frequently to encourage them to visit more than once? Dedicate at least one section of your homepage to the latest news, call-to-action, or other piece of current information that will appeal to your target audiences, and update it regularly.br /br /5.nbsp;strongData is priceless/strong. Do you track key information about your website (e.g., source of visitors, actions once a person arrives on your site, which pages visitors look at, how much time they spend on your site, etc.)? If not, then get cracking. But remember, just tracking information isnrsquo;t enough. You need to use it too! Make informed decisions about website content, design, architecture, advertising and more based on an analysis of the data you collect./p pAdmittedly, these lessons only scratch the surface of website effectiveness. Read more tips in thestrong /stronga href="http://www.convio.com/signup/resolutions-2010/" target="_blank"strong2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide/strong/anbsp; and share some of your own here./pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zfXqDg4W4go:Lnidcvj5wYM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Seth Merritt/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/seth-merritt-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pIf you live in one of the many areas blanketed by snow the past few weeks, you might be looking for a cure for cabin fever. The a href="http://www.audubon.org/gbbc/"Great Backyard Bird Count/a is this weekend, February 12 - 15, 2010, and it's great way to get outside with family and friends, have fun, and help birdsmdash;all at the same time. a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=gbbc"#GBBC/a happens once a year, when tens of thousands of bird watchers of all ages create a snapshot of where the birds are across the U.S. amp; Canada. a href="http://www.audubon.org/gbbc/"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/gbbc_button.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 8px 12px;" alt="GBBC button" //a/p pAll you have to do to participate is spend at least 15 minutes on one or more of the four days counting birds anywhere you like, and then report your results on a href="http://www.birdcount.org"www.birdcount.org/a by March 1, 2010. You can count birds from your window, balcony or backyard, from a park, a lake, a river or the ocean, from a bus stop or an office or anywhere at all. (Hint: you donrsquo;t actually have to go outside if you donrsquo;t want to!) /p pThe project web site allows you to generate a a href="http://gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/checklist"checklist of birds likely to be present in your region/a, which you can also print and use to record your observations. There is also a a href="http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/gallery"photo contest/a and plenty of educational content to help involve young folk in this important citizen science project. You can even download a certificate if you submit your results online ndash; howrsquo;s that for show and tell? /p pThe GBBC is sponsored in part by the a href="http://www.audubon.org/gbbc/"National Audubon Society/a, which also coordinates the annual a href="http://www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc/"Christmas Bird Count/a.nbsp; /p pWell, Irsquo;m off to get some more a href="http://www.wbu.com/"bird seed/a.nbsp; Happy Counting! /p pa href="http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/gallery/2008/9242.Bluejay.JerryActon.Berkshire.NY.yes.jpg/view"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/gbbc_bluejay_thumb.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0px 8px 12px;" alt="GBBC - Bluejay" //aTwitter: a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=gbbc"#gbbc/a /p pa href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=290904063048"RSVP on Facebook/a /pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Gj1jeyAzImc:NEW0iown6Ik:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Alan Cooke/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/alan-cooke-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"span style="color: #333333;"span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/mothertheresa.jpg" alt="Mother Theresa" //span/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"span style="color: #333333;"span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"Proving that even saints are not immune from criticism, the famously cantankerous British writer Christopher Hitchens has almost built a career on invective against Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Hitchens assumes that saints should always be presumed guilty until proven innocent. Particularly if it makes sensational copy, one might add. Whatever you might think of Hitchens though, one of his main criticisms raises an interesting point. He has argued that Mother Theresa was not primarily interested in eliminating poverty, which would have involved muscular advocacy for things like the empowerment of women. She was much more concerned with providing services to, in her own words,nbsp; ldquo;the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society ldquo;. br /The question posed by Hitchens boils down to: whatrsquo;s more importantmdash; programs to provide services to the needy, or advocacy to permanently change the social conditions that actually result in hunger and homelessness?/span/span/p pspan style="color: #333333;"span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;" p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"br /I have been reading the wonderful book Forces for Good, by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant, where this dilemma is presented quite starkly. In trying to answer the question ldquo;What makes nonprofits greatrdquo; they look at twelve exemplary ldquo;change makersrdquo; and come up with some quite surprising answers. What makes nonprofits truly great has little to do with program efficiencies, organizational capacity, or even better management. Instead greatness is directly correlated with a relentless focus on social impact and results. They quote the founder of Ashoka mdash;an association for social entrepreneurs in this moldmdash;who defines the approach like this:/p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"br /ldquo;Social entrepreneurs are not content merely to give a man a fish, or even teach him how to fish; these entrepreneurs wonrsquo;t stop until they have revolutionized the entire fishing industryrdquo;./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"br /Clearly, revolutionizing the fishing industry is going to take quite a bit more work than running a range of fishing programs. So what should nonprofits be doing? Conventional wisdom has always said that nonprofits should focus on either service or advocacy, but not both. After all, advocacy requires different organizational skills than providing direct services to needy populations. But whatrsquo;s fascinating about the organizations studied in this book, is that they have all done both. At some point, it became clear to them that in order to create systemic change, programs had to be supported by advocacy. Most organizations that decide to engage in both activities begin with the provision of services, and then add advocacy activities later. But some take the opposite route. For example, Convio client Environmental Defense Fund (a href="http://www.edf.org"http://www.edf.org/a) started out as an advocacy organization focused on preventing the use of DDT. But eventually, they greatly extended their influence by building environmental programs to support advocacy efforts./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"br /The really important thing is the synergy between both types of activity. By providing services, nonprofits learn what works on the ground, and can use that knowledge to frame more effective policy positions and associated advocacy campaigns. Conversely, advocating for social change through the legislative process can bring both organizational credibility to program work, and sometimes leads to federal and state funding for those programs./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"br /Integrated online tools make it much easier to market to your pool of valuable activists, moving them to deeper and deeper levels of engagement and commitment both online and offline. Some donors will also be more than happy to advocate on behalf of the organization as their identification with the organization deepens./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"br /The 2009 Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Study contains some good data on this synergy. Of all the organizations in the study, almost 6% of online activists have also supported these organizations financially online. For some industries such as Animal Welfare though, the metric is almost three times higher. So while organizations are getting much better at converting activists to donors, therersquo;s still much room for improvement. Similarly, our report shows that over 8% of online donors have also taken an advocacy action. Once again though, some industries have much higher participation rates. About 22% of donors to Environment and Wildlife organizations are also involved in online advocacy./p p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"br /Fundraising for program support, combined with advocacy for systemic political change can powerfully reinforce each other and result in very high-impact organizations. And as Forces for Good makes clear, this is what really counts. Hitchens notwithstanding, Mother Theresalsquo;s impact on the world was incalculable. But the poor will always be with us, and the magnitude of the task of providing services to mitigate social ills can sometimes seem overwhelming. At some point, it surely makes sense to think about fostering systemic change in addition to aid programs. /p /span/span/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=m4CiwQdt4NI:Dq2TyqnqqRs:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Amber Wobschall/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/amber-wobschall-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pa href="http://www.projecthope.org" target="_blank"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/projecthopelogo.gif" style="float: right; vertical-align: middle;" alt="Project Hope Logo" //aMany non-profits struggle with website redesign projects because they are such a huge undertaking. They can be both time and labor intensive ndash; involving numerous stakeholders (board members, department directors, and key staff) and often you donrsquo;t see results for more than a year./p pa href="http://www.convio.com/our-services/" target="_blank"Conviorsquo;s proven methodology/a, ensures that clients take a more iterative, quick hit approach that allows them to see results faster while tackling the larger web presence redesign in parallel.nbsp; /p pa href="http://www.projecthope.org" target="_blank"Project HOPE/anbsp;is a Convio client I work with who recently re-launched their site after only working with our interactive agency practice for 4 months. The new site has immediately improved the user experience and increased donations.nbsp; The client worked with us on a quick turnaround redesign project which we started by conducting several interviews with key HOPE stakeholders. Armed with increased knowledge of the organizational goals and priorities, we developed a new information architecture and wireframes for the site. Then, since any successful web site redesign (even a quick one) should incorporate feedback from real users, we tested out the wireframes with some of HOPErsquo;s target constituents. Once finalized, we designed a sharp new look and feel, which is live on the site today./p pKatya Andresen a href="http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/site/extreme_website_makeover_from_ick_to_slick/" target="_blank"gave kudos/a to Project HOPE for the effort thus far, but what people may not realize is that the team is working on a bigger launch in another few months where we will infuse even more user research and data with the stakeholder input driving the larger initiative. /p pKeep your eyes open for the next launch and thanks to the Project HOPE team for their great work in the a href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2010/january/tragedy-in-haiti-how-can-i.html" target="_blank"Haiti Earthquake response/a./pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=k7qH75Rebsg:9kW04OpYQzM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Emma Zolbrod/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/emma-zolbrod-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pWhile writing about a href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2010/january/top-5-lessons-learned-multi-channel-engagement.html" target="_blank"multi-channel engagement/a, I couldnrsquo;t help but to think that each lesson learned applied mainly to supporters who are actively engaged with your nonprofit organization. But what about those donors who have seemingly fallen off the face of the planet? Well, last year, I learned that there are many options when yoursquo;re trying to reconnect with donors. /p h3Top 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Reconnecting With Donors/h3 pa href="http://my.convio.com/forms/2010ResolutionsGuide" target="_blank"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/connect-with-donors.jpg" style="float: right;" alt="Connect with Donors Paintcan" //a1.nbsp;strongRemind them that money is not the only option/strong. In challenging economic times, many donors might not have extra funds to give to your organization. These individuals might wrongly assume that a donation is the only way they can help. Of course, this is far from the truth. Your organization survives and thrives thanks to a combination of dollars, volunteer hours, and other generous support. Of course you know that there are other ways that lapsed donors could support you, but do they know? Donrsquo;t make any assumptions. Lay out the options in clear, non-financial terms. /p p2.nbsp;strongDangle a carrot/strong. Premiums and incentives can go a long way with some donors, including lapsed ones. It might be enough to bring a person back into the fold, and prompt them to support your organization financially once again.nbsp; /p p3.nbsp;strongSpeak to them directly/strong. Use the information you have about your lapsed donors to write a message in which you acknowledge that theyrsquo;ve been MIA, and that you would love to reconnect with them again. Donrsquo;t make it all about the money. Your goal in the short-term should be to rebuild your relationship, not to ask them for a donation. /p p4.nbsp;strongShowcase your progress/strong. You might never know what prompted a donor to stop giving. However, you do know that at some stage, they had a tie to your cause. Use this fact to help you reconnect with your donor by sending a message that shows how much progress your organization made last year with the donations it received. (This could be conducted in conjunction with lesson #3.) A meaningful photo and a heart-warming story might be just what the individual needs to remind them why they cared in the first place, and that they should get involved once again. /p p5.nbsp;strongDonrsquo;t be afraid to sever the ties/strong. You need to take a step back first and approach this segment carefully and wisely, with a view towards your return on investment. These might not be the people you want on your direct mailing list because you might not see the return yoursquo;re looking for. Of course you need to make an informed decision before you remove a person from your list, but at the same time, you need to be smart with your limited budget. /p pIf yoursquo;re looking for additional tips on this topic, take a peek at the a href="http://my.convio.com/forms/2010ResolutionsGuide" target="_blank"strong2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide/strong/a. It contains a few nuggets that will be useful to those of you who are trying to come up with new ways to reconnect with donors./pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=0g2fvi-UwKU:c6VqgYAwB2k:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: James Young/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/james_young-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/mobile-kid-by-ruben.bmp" alt="Mobile Kid" //p pPhoto by a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozewiezewozewiezewallakristallix/" target="_blank"Ruben/a/p pDo you remember when Mobile was just a kid with a dream, and nobody believed in him besides himself? Well, hersquo;s grown up a lot lately and proven his worth. Irsquo;m happy for him. I really am, but I hope he doesnrsquo;t let it go to his head. He has more growing to do./p pbr /Sure, he raised over a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/18/mobile-giving-haiti-20-million/" target="_blank"$20 million/anbsp;for Haiti and an impressive array of non-profit organizations including a href="http://www.redcross.org/" target="_blank"American Red Cross/a, a href="http://www.oxfamamerica.org/" target="_blank"Oxfam America/a, a href="http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf" target="_blank"Salvation Army/a, a href="http://www.habitat.org/" target="_blank"Habitat for Humanity/a, a href="http://www.theirc.org/" target="_blank"International Rescue Committee/a, and the a href="http://www.unfoundation.org/" target="_blank"United Nations Foundation/anbsp; used his services. Good for him. But is that it? I mean, seriously, is raising money all he can do? Is that all he wants to do?/p pbr /He may have you fooled, just like all the famous TV curmudgeons with hearts of gold. Mobile can do more, and he can do it pretty well. He has people using him for a href="http://www.mobilecommons.com/resources/case-studies/" target="_blank"a lot of other purposes geared toward engagement beyond donations/a./p ul li value="0"Consider the a href="http://www.humanesociety.org/" target="_blank"Humane Society of the United States/a, who used a text message to give a heads up to their constituents that an email fundraising appeal was coming to their inbox soon. The people who got both the text and the email were 77% more likely to give./li li value="0"Consider how a href="http://www.sheddaquarium.org/" target="_blank"Shedd Aquarium/a, using an integrated approach, had TV spots that asked people to send a text message to enter a contest. They also had TV spots that drove people to a website. The text version of the TV spot outperformed the others by a large margin./li li value="0"Consider how a href="http://www.blueocean.org/home" target="_blank"The Blue Ocean Institute /auses text messages to inform their constituents about the kind of fish it is OK to buy or eat. /li li value="0"Consider how a href="http://www.itsourhealthcare.org/" target="_blank"Itrsquo;s OUR Healthcare!/anbsp; used a text to screen campaign to empower constituents to text in healthcare related message to a huge TV placed in front of the California Statehouse./li /ul pYou see, he has game in other ways besides mobile giving. And I wonder what he has up his sleeve. He doesnrsquo;t hang with me as much as he used to because he has been spending a lot of time with iPhone, Black Berry and Droid. Irsquo;m not jealous. Itrsquo;s kind of his job. They seem like they are cooking up some big plans.nbsp; I heard them talking (I couldnrsquo;t help it, they were loud. I wasnrsquo;t eavesdropping):/p ul li value="0"Applications seem like a pretty cool way to present specialized experiences on the phone, especially now that applications can push messages out to you. I havenrsquo;t seen any applications on my phone that let me find volunteering opportunities near me this weekend. I have seen a super cool application for the a href="http://www.houstonzoo.org/" target="_blank"Houston Zoo /athat tells me all kinds of good things about the animals there./li li value="0"Location-based services are going to be big too. You know, the ones who ask if they can use your current location and then show you all of the other people who are in the Mobile Fan Club within a 5 mile radius. That technology could be put to better use, like a href="http://www.causeworld.com/" target="_blank"CauseWorld/a is doing, letting me check into places I like to go to anyway, and have some big corporation donate to my cause because I probably bought their beer while I was there./li li value="0"Mobile giving through special mobile-browser optimized forms, where you can give more than $10 at a time. Really, why canrsquo;t I give more than that each time? Just give me a form and I swear, Irsquo;ll donate more./li li value="0"Augmented reality applications, where you can see data overlays of the very world in front of your eyes. For example, I look at a library through my phone and I see data that tells me how many illiterate people there are in my city and where I can volunteer to teach people to read./li /ul pYessiree, I like that Mobile kid. I think he got a bright future. Not to sound like too much of a fan boy, but he is the coolest. If you havenrsquo;t met Mobile yet, you should. Let me know, Irsquo;ll hook you up./pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=K_fPG4uK2t4:R-oyVBCoDq4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Corey Pudhorodsky/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/corey-pud-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / divI am willing to bet just about anyone that has worked in the nonprofit sector for a notable amount of time has benefited from the work of Idealist.org. nbsp;Just glance over their a href="http://idealist.org/en/resources.html" id="dvan" title="Resources Page"Resources Page/a and you'll find a massive number of sections including: /div ul li value="0"A Career Center : Arguably one of the largest and best know career resources for people interested in starting or enriching their career in the nonprofit sector. /li li value="0"The Public Service and Graduate Education Resource Center (PSGERC): Articles and help for those considering returning to school for a graduate degree in public service. /li li value="0"Mentoring and Teaching tools : Inspiration for up-and-coming leaders and tools to help teachers introduce youth to public service are just a couple of the items that you'll find to help the next generation of do-span class="misspell"gooders/span get fueled. /li li value="0"Nonprofit Organization libraries : The Nonprofit FAQ answers common questions that organizations run into and there are resources for all kinds of staff from webmasters to volunteer managers.nbsp; /li /ul divimg align="right" src="http://www.idealist.org/images/en/pageWrapper/header/headerT2_r1_c1.gif" //div divEven if you have gotten assistance from Idealist.org before, perhaps I mentioned a new item or topic that your didn't already know about.nbsp; Every time I come back to their site, I find something new.nbsp; Idealist.org doesn't just aggregate existing information and resources, they also produce new content and research for those working in the nonprofit sector.nbsp; The site is a project of Action Without Borders, a nonprofit founded in 1995 with a rich history of helping people share resources and information.nbsp; I hope that they will be able to continue to enrich our community which is why I am writing about Idealist.org today./div divnbsp;/div divIn an appeal to the community late last week, the span class="misspell"org's/span founder Ami Dar, wrote:/div blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;" divOver the past ten years, most of our funding has come from the small fees we charge organizations for posting their jobs on Idealist. By September 2008, after years of steady growth, these little drops were covering 70% of our budget. /div divThen, in October of that year, the financial crisis exploded, many organizations understandably froze their hiring, and from one week to the next our earned income was cut almost in half, leaving us with a hole of more than $100,000 each month./div /blockquote divWhat a shame it would be if a resource that has helped so many organizations find passionate employees and so many talented individuals find meaningful jobs was no longer available? Both parties need a common place to post and find opportunities and Idealist.org has been that place for years.nbsp; To ensure that resource is available for future job posters and seekers in the nonprofit sector, we must support Idealist.org now.nbsp; You can make a donation and read the full letter from Ami at the following link:nbsp;span style="font-family: arial;"a href="http://www.idealist.org/donate" target="_blank"http://www.idealist.org/donate/a.nbsp; Pass it on to your friends, coworkers, and other organizations.nbsp; Tweet it, Post it, span class="misspell"Digg/span it, and donate./span/divdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=4X9ZzFEAxlE:IzPEvBkxjhE:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Emma Zolbrod/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/emma-zolbrod-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pIrsquo;m connected in different ways to numerous nonprofit organizations. On the professional side, Irsquo;ve interviewed many industry professionals for articles, case studies, best practices guides, white papers and more. On the personal side, Irsquo;ve donated, volunteered, taken action, and raised money. From my interactions with them over the years, I became aware of how these organizations could engage me more effectively so that I feel even more committed to supporting their cause. And with the publishing of the a href="http://my.convio.com/forms/2010ResolutionsGuide" target="_blank"2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide/a, 5 main lessons learned in the way of multi-channel marketing were evident in 2009. /p pa href="http://my.convio.com/forms/2010ResolutionsGuide" target="_blank"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/multi-channel-image.jpg" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" alt="Multi-channel marketing " //a/p h2Top 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Multi-Channel Engagement/h2 pstrong1. Coordinate your efforts./strong Two emails from the same nonprofit in one day? Both asking me for money? I replied to one of the senders and gave them a heads-up about the overlap because I knew that if I was annoyed by it, many others likely were as well. She thanked me for my input and apologized for bombarding me with emails. This simple oversight on the nonprofitrsquo;s end reminded me how important it is for an organization to coordinate messages across departments. Even if you operate in silos, try to create the illusion that you donrsquo;t./p p2. strongUse the data you have about me./strongnbsp; You should be collecting information about me ndash; donations, interests, communication preferences. So, please use it to your advantage. If I donated $50 last year, donrsquo;t suggest that I give $25 this year. Instead, remind me that I gave $50 last year, and then ask me to give the same again or more this year. Irsquo;ll appreciate the personalized message and the fact that you remember the amount, because I probably wonrsquo;t!/p p3. strongTell me what else I can do./strong If you tell me about other ways I could get involved with your organization, then I probably will. The reason that I typically open my wallet first is because that is what you tell me to do. So tell me to do something else. My sonrsquo;s preschool, which is a nonprofit organization, is a perfect example. Since he started there in 2008, my family has made several donations to support the school. Last week, I received an email asking me to donate earthquake supplies. This was not a generic ask, it was a specific list ndash; from duct tape and shovels, to blankets and flashlights. In the wake of the Haiti earthquake, the message was timely and reminded me that in the case of his school, I can do more than give cash. I can donate specific items and even join the earthquake preparedness committee to ensure that my son, his peers, and teachers, are well equipped if an emergency arises. They asked. Now Irsquo;m inspired to deliver./p p4. strongRespect my preferences./strong Yoursquo;ve told me that your organizationrsquo;s fundraising results were down because of the economy, and that my donation ndash; no matter how small ndash; will make a difference. Irsquo;ve told you that Irsquo;m most responsive to email (as long as you donrsquo;t send me two of them on the same day). Yet over the holidays, I received a fancy direct mail piece from you. The attractive double-sided, full color piece on high-quality card stock might inspire some people to donate, but for me it made me feel as though you arenrsquo;t listening to what Irsquo;ve told you in the past. So, please choose your communication channel more carefully when you reach out to me. If you do, then Irsquo;m more likely to keep supporting your cause.nbsp;/p pstrong5. If you insist on contacting me offline, then please tell me how I can respond online./strong I realize that sometimes you will contact me by mail. When you do, please give me the option to respond online and make it clear how I would do it. If therersquo;s a special campaign, then include the link to the donation form in your direct mail piece. If yoursquo;re looking for volunteers, then point me to the volunteer sign-up page on your website. Irsquo;m more likely to come through for you if I can fulfil your request through your website. /p pWe all know that yoursquo;re doing your best, but we want you to do even better by taking the time to listen to our feedback and then incorporating it into your multi-channel engagement strategy. /p pEven more tips and lessons learned for Multi-Channel engagement can be found in the a href="http://my.convio.com/forms/2010ResolutionsGuide" target="_blank"strong2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide/strong/a. Have something else that works well for your organization? Share them here!/p pnbsp;/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=UUoh_0dXSz4:r3Lmqg5cwJw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Lacey Kruger/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/lacey_kruger-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / PToday I wanted to share some preliminary steps to take when your organization begins thinking about a web site redesign. Whether designing in-house or with a third-party company, completing these tasks ahead of time will save you a great deal of time and pain down the roadhellip;/P OL LISTRONGJustify the need to redesign/STRONG ndash; Have some conversations internally about whatrsquo;s working and whatrsquo;s not working with your current site and document those conversations. Decide what outcomes yoursquo;re expecting with the redesign so you can share those goals with your designer. LISTRONGDefine your core project team/STRONG ndash; Yoursquo;ll need to determine who, in your organization, will be responsible for making decisions about the new site. Include anyone who will need to sign off on the new design or any of the deliverables leading up to it (information architecture, wireframes, etc.). Also, major content contributors or owners will want to have a say in what stays and what goes. Finally, any key strategists in your organization that know what types of people visit your web site and who else you want to reach out to. Make decisions about the team judiciously since the larger the team, the more challenging it will be to get sign-off on key milestones. LISTRONGCreate a comprehensive sitemap/STRONG - Make a list of the content you already have on your web site. From there, you can make decisions about what is important, what needs updating, and what is outdated or doesnrsquo;t need a home on your new site. I talked about this process in a little more detail in a previous post called ldquo;A target=_blank href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2009/july/the-content-monster.html"The Content Monster/Ardquo;. LISTRONGConsider branding/STRONG ndash; If you havenrsquo;t already, determine and document your company logo and color scheme so your designer will have some guidelines. Collect any photography that could be incorporated and also any print materials that may serve as a guide to your brand. /LI/OL PThese steps are just the beginning to embarking on a successful redesign. Many additional considerations and decisions will arise as you enter the process, but at least you can get a head start!BR/Pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=p0K-e_aA4Eo:q_Rt6Dh6Io0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Taylor Shanklin/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/taylor-shanklin-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / PIMG style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px" src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/thermometer.gif" alt="thermometer"Last night while pondering what I would write todayrsquo;s blog post on, I read through other recent posts on A target=_blank href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/"Connection Cafeacute;/A.nbsp; Emma Zolbrodrsquo;s A target=_blank href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2010/january/participant-fundraising-2009.html"post on participant fundraising/A hit a personal chord.nbsp; Emma, thank you for sharing your story and experience with participant fundraising.nbsp; I, too, have participated as a fundraiser and athlete in Team in Trainingrsquo;s (TNT) program.nbsp; My first event was a century bike ride in Lake Tahoe in 2009 and Irsquo;m now training for a triathlon.nbsp; Lucky for me, the online tools have been there since my start with TNT.nbsp; It is probably also lucky for my friends and family; they get to read pretty emails instead of having to try to understand my chicken scratch handwriting./P PEmmarsquo;s lessons learned got me thinking: What are some simple online tools that organizations can provide to really help with that ldquo;heavy liftingrdquo; and make it fun for participants to fundraise?nbsp; How can orgs put the ldquo;funrdquo; back in fundraising?/P PAs a Convio employee and as a fundraiser I have had the opportunity to sit on both sides of the aisle.nbsp; Irsquo;ve created widgets and had the chance to use them from a participantrsquo;s perspective.nbsp; Let me tell you, they are fun!nbsp; Watching that thermometer move up and get closer and closer to my goal is exciting.nbsp; Not to get too cheesy here, but it really does mean that the money being raised (and illustrated in the widget) is helping a cause that Irsquo;m passionate about./P PAs an organization, you may be reading this and thinking to yourself, ldquo;Widgets are pretty but they seem complicated to implement.rdquo;nbsp; The good news is that it really is not that complicated.nbsp; With all of the social media, online fundraising systems and APIs available today, there are many opportunities to provide some fun tools for your run, walk, ride event participants to use that do not have to take up a lot of your time or teamrsquo;s bandwidth.nbsp; /P PIf you have an online fundraising center where your participants can login to track fundraising progress and send emails, consider placing some snippets of code that participants can copy and paste into their personal websites or social media outlets.nbsp; These snippets can include the code for a fundraising thermometer or other types of widgets or fundraising badges.nbsp; Do you have fundraising milestones?nbsp; Consider creating badges that participants can place on their fundraising pages once they reach those milestones.nbsp; You may need a little help fromnbsp; your web administrator, but many online fundraising tools provide pre-made widgets or badges that you can use.nbsp; Do you have a YouTube channel or videos that you want participants to share?nbsp; Place the YouTube embed snippet of code in your fundraising center so that participants can easily copy and drop that into their own sites./P PTodayrsquo;s web is your podium ndash; a public forum for you to share your ideas with your participants and empower them to take those ideas to their podiums and spread the word about your cause.nbsp; By giving participants some fun tools to use, you are doing the heavy lifting in making it easy for them to want to share their story of involvement with your organization.nbsp; Remember, people like big, bright, shiny buttons and exploding thermometers.nbsp; They just tend to click on them.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; BRnbsp;/Pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=a5-Iwfph2Ak:vfWCvMsub20:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Ken Cantu/pimg src="" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / A href="http://www.woorank.com/"IMG style="BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px" align=right src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/woo.jpg" alt="WooRank Logo"/A PIrsquo;m a sucker for new web tools and gadgets and luckily I am surrounded by, and work for, many folks afflicted by the same condition. Last week I saw a A href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/24/woorank/"TechCrunch article/A about an SEO analysis tool that went BETA on January 20th called A href="http://www.woorank.com/"WooRank/A which has become a quick favorite. Provide this tool with any URL, and it will give you a breakdown and ranking of how well the site does against most of the standard SEO best practice areas and gives you tips for improving your ranking. /P PThe current free version compares 50 fields but the soon-to-be-released version will have 120, according to the TechCrunch article. For me, the free 50-field version is a good gut check on how well I have my SEO basics down as I code and develop a site. For my non-profits friends, it is definitely a great amount of value and insight from only a 15 minute investment in reviewing the results.nbsp; /P PAt the risk of being hunted down by some friends in marketing, I tested A href="http://www.woorank.com/en/www/convio.com"Convio.com/A to see how well our homepage faired.nbsp; Fortunately, we came out above average with a score of 66.4. (To give some perspective,nbsp; median is 51.4 (of sites currently tested), and sites such as A href="http://code.google.com/"code.google.com/A, A href="http://www.wikipedia.org/"Wikipedia/A and A href="http://www.mozilla.org/"Mozilla.org/A are in the high 80rsquo;s/low 90rsquo;s. Like most sites, Convio.com has a mix of easy and hard fixes that will have to be address over time. However, knowing what need to be done now means tweaks can be worked into other projects that are planned in the near future which will reduce overall implementation time. /P PFor most of my results, WooRank had descriptions of what the crawlers are looking for and how I could improve the ranking. The descriptions are very helpful and they link to other references and resources for digging deeper if you want more information. If you are new to SEO, or like me, have long stints between these types of projects where you might forget some of the standard best practices, then itrsquo;s a great one-page refresher on what you should be thinking about. /P PThere were a couple things I found myself hoping for in the tool that I would like to see in future releases. Not every item description has information that is actionable by me which can be frustrating. (For example, the Alexa and Compete ranks being lsquo;high impactrsquo;, but there are no descriptions as to why or how.) Also, one of the mantrarsquo;s of many SEO companies is lsquo;content is kingrsquo;, yet there arenrsquo;t many references on the site related to writing good SEO content. However, these items are minor compared to what you do get overall and they could be soon available in the premium version, so Irsquo;m interested to see what the new 70 fields will include. /P PI can describe the tool more but really itrsquo;s easier to play around with it at A href="http://www.woorank.com/"http://www.woorank.com//A. Any thoughts on how thisnbsp;stacks up against more industry standard SEO tools that are paid-for services? nbsp;/P PHappy coding!BRnbsp;/Pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=WVX2qIi50DA:R7j_C8ABzU4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Noah Cooper/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/noah-cooper-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pLike all of my colleagues here at Convio, I've been humbled by the a href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2010/january/tragedy-in-haiti-how-can-i.html"many organizations/a who have rushed to the aid of the Haitian people over the past two weeks, raising record-breaking funds for relief efforts and showing how technology can be used to save lives./p pAs an advocacy buff, I've been particularly impressed with the action alerts and online petitions related to Haiti. One campaign which several organizations took part in was successful in convincing President Obama's administration to grant a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/world/americas/16immig.html"temporary protected status/a to Haitians living in the U.S. Just this weekend, family members of those who have gone missing since the earthquake launched an online petition urging government officials to continue search and rescue operations./p pOne area in which I hope to see new, innovative campaigns from advocacy orgs in 2010 is using social media as a means of communicating with elected officials and other decision makers. A a target="_blank" href="http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/release.cfm?ArticleID=1964"recent study by researchers at the University of Maryland/a found that, while use of Twitter is growing amongst members of Congress, very little is happening in the way of direct citizen-to-representative interaction or vice versa (I'm still waiting for a RT from a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/JohnCornyn"@JohnCornyn/a)./p pA recent campaign that caught my eye was the "Tweet Your Senator" campaign around health care reform on the Organizing for America site. A Convio client asked me a few months back if they could incorporate something similar on their site, allowing constituents to look up and tweet at their legislators. After doing a little research, I wasn't able to find a plug-and-play solution out there to meet this need, so I decided to build my own! With a little help from a friend, I created a target="_blank" href="http://tweetatcongress.com/"TweetAtCongress.com/a. TweetAtCongress provides an a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface"API/a that Web developers can use to look up legislators on Twitter (and yes, you can use it anywhere, not just on a Convio-powered site). The site launched last month with support for federal legislators, and later this week, I'll be pushing out an update with data for state legislators as well. In the next few weeks, I'll also be posting a document on the a href="http://community.customer.convio.com"Convio Community/a with instructions on how Convio clients can use this API to easily create a widget just like the POTUS./p pSo, all you advocacy organizations out there, I'd love to hear any feedback you have on TweetAtCongress, and any other creative ideas you have for how non-profits can use social media as a tool for change/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=D4G1PkHTJ2g:-fCz17VxAsM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Jill Ward/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/jill-ward-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / PI am saddened by the news and images coming from Haiti after the devastating earthquake that hit on January 12. The question on my mind and many of yours is where and how can I help? With a few quick searches on Google and Twitter, there is no shortage of options from tweeting to texting. I've compiled a short list below, and it is by no means complete. Please check back regularly as we will be adding organizations that are providing relief to Haiti.nbsp;Charity Navigator, the nation's largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities, has a tip sheet for A target=_blank href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.viewcpid=310"donating during times of crisis/A that is a great reference when making a decision to give during this tragedy./P PYou can also follow A target=_blank href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23Haiti"#haiti/A A target=_blank href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23haitiquake"#haitiquake/A A target=_blank href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23helphaiti"#helphaiti/ASPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"nbsp;/SPANA target=_blank href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23HaitiRelief"#haitirelief/A on Twitter to find out where to donate or text ldquo;haitirdquo; to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross for Haiti relief efforts./P H1 class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"Please note: this list is incomplete, and we are regularly updating this post. If you have another resource that you would like listed, please leave a comment or email A href="mailto:blog@convio.com"blog@convio.com/Anbsp;and we will make updates accordingly./H1 P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"SPAN lang=EN style="mso-ansi-language: EN"/SPANnbsp;/P TABLE style="WIDTH: 100%" TBODY TR TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WIDTH: 50%" align=left PA target=_blank href="https://secure2.convio.net/aarp1/site/Donation2?df_id=41234123.donation=form1 "AARP Foundation /ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/"Action Against Hunger/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.adra.org/site/PageServer"Adventist Development and Relief Agency/ABRA target=_blank href="https://secure2.convio.net/afsc/site/Donation2?idb=0df_id=10401040.donation=form1s_src=CrisisJServSessionIdr004=2khrmchas6.app10b"American Friends Service Committee/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.arcrelief.org/site/PageServer"American Refugee Committee/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.americares.org/"Americares/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.bhm.org/bhm/index.php"Baptist Haiti Mission/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.care.org/"CARE/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.cmmb.org/"Catholic Medical Mission Board/ABRA target=_hplink href="https://secure.crs.org/site/Donation2?df_id=31813181.donation=form1"Catholic Relief Services/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.cbm.org/"Christian Blind Mission International/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.ncm.org/news/press/catastrophic_earthquake_hits_haiti/"Church of the Nazarene/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.churchworldservice.org"Church World Service/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.crwrc.org/pages/crwrc.cfm"Christian Reformed World Relief Committee/ABRA target=_blank href="https://secure2.convio.net/dri/site/Donation2?idb=173152471170.donation=form1df_id=1170JServSessionIdr004=7ob2nlgbk1.app46b"Direct Relief International/A BRA target=_hplink href="http://doctorswithoutborders.org/"Doctors Without Borders/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.eastwest.org/site/PageServer"East West Ministries/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.feedthechildren.org"Feed The Children/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.foodforthepoor.org/help/quake_updates/"Food for the Poor/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.freethekids.org/"Free the Kids/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.friendsoftheorphans.org/s/769/start.aspx"Friends of the Orphans/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.globalgreen.org/"Global Green USA/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.grameenfoundation.org/who-we-are"Grameen Foundation/A BRA target=_blank href="http://hodr.org/donate/"Hands on Disaster Response/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.holtintl.org/"Holt International/ABRA target=_blank href="http://hashaiti.org"Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti/ABRA target=_blank href="http://action.humanesociety.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=2101.0dlv_id=0s_src=convioblog"Humane Society of the United States/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.refugees.org/"Immigration and Refugee Services of America/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.icm.org/haiti"International Cooperating Ministries/A BRA target=_hplink href="https://www.imcworldwide.org/"International Medical Corps/A/SPANBRA target=_blank href="http://www.ird-dc.org/what/stories/haiti_earthquake.html"International Relief Development/ABRA target=_blank href="https://secure.ga0.org/02/haiti"International Planned Parenthood Federation/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.internews.org/default.shtm"Internews/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/"LDS Philanthropies/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.lifeusa.org/site/PageServer"Life for Relief and Development/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.ldr.org/alert/index.html"Lutheran Disaster Response/Anbsp;nbsp; BRA target=_blank href="http://www.lwr.org/emergencies/10/HaitiEarthquake/index.asp"Lutheran World Relief/A BRA target=_blank href="http://www.madre.org/index.php?video=1"MADRE/A /P/TD TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; WIDTH: 50%" align=left PA target=_blank href="http://www.map.org/site/PageServer"MAP International/Anbsp; BRA target=_hplink href="http://www.mercycorps.org/"Mercy Corps/ABRA target=_blank href="https://secure2.convio.net/cn/site/Donation2?df_id=1276012760.donation=form1"Nazarene Compassionate Ministries/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.nethope.org/"NetHope/AA target=_blank href="http://ob.org"Operation Blessing/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.opusa.org/"Operation USA/A/SPANBRA target=_hplink href="http://betterfutureinternational.com/"Orphans International America/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.outreach-international.org/"Outreach International/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.oxfamamerica.org/"Oxfam America/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.pih.org/home.html"Partners In Health/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.psi.org/major-earthquake-strikes-haiti"Population Services International Youth AIDS/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.projectconcern.org/site/PageServer"Project Concern International/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.projecthope.org/site/PageServer"Project Hope/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.reiserrelief.org/"Reiser Relief/A BRA target=_blank href="https://secure3.convio.net/rfp/site/Donation2?1400.donation=form1df_id=1400JServSessionIdr004=w7ofhq1jj4.app334b"Religions for Peace/ABRA target=_blank href="http://awe.sm/37HZB"Rock the Vote/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.savethechildren.org/newsroom/2010/haiti-relief.html"Save The Children/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.sos-usa.org/Pages/default.aspx"SOS Childrenrsquo;s Villages/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.stophungernow.org/site/PageServer?JServSessionIdr004=w1s84ghfh3.app306a"Stop Hunger Now/ABRA target=_blank href="https://american.redcross.org/"The American Red Cross/ABRTA target=_blank href="http://www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=serve_brethren_disaster_ministries"he Church of the Brethren/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.haitianhealthfoundation.org/"The Haitian Health Foundation/A/SPANBRA target=_hplink href="http://www.theirc.org/"The International Rescue Committee/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=213301"The Jewish Federations of North America/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf"The Salvation Army/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.unfoundation.org/donate/cerf.html"UN Foundation/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://www.unicef.org/"UNICEF/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.uusc.org/"Unitarian Universalist Service Committee/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.ucc.org/"United Church of Christ/ABRA target=_hplink href="http://ochaonline.un.org/Default.aspx?alias=ochaonline.un.org/cerf"United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.unicefusa.org/"US Fund for UNICEF/ABRA target=_blank href="https://wecanbuildanorphanage.com/"We Can Build An Orphanage/Anbsp; BRA target=_hplink href="http://www.worldconcern.org/"World Concern/Anbsp;BRA target=_blank href="http://www.wme.org/site/PageServer"World Missionary Evangelism/Anbsp;BRA target=_blank href="http://www.worldvision.org/"World Vision/ABRA href="http://www.yele.org/"Yele Haiti/ABRA target=_blank href="http://www.unitedwaymiami.org/iwant2help.asp"United Way of Miami-Dade/A/P/TD/TR/TBODY/TABLEdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=saydkhhq9hU:yvSMP-iTg54:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Emma Zolbrod/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/emma-zolbrod-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / PIf therersquo;s one topic thatrsquo;s near and dear to my heart in the nonprofit world, itrsquo;s participant fundraising. /P PFirst a little background information. In memory of my brother-in-law, Bill Drew, I joined Team in Training in 2002 and committed to raise $2,500 and run a marathon. For someone whose fundraising experience at that time was limited to selling chocolate covered almonds door-to-door in seventh grade, and whose running experience could best be described as non-existent, the odds were not in my favor. But I knew a lot about marketing and I thought that my determination might come in handy, so off I went. /P PBack then, fundraising was different. Technology to allow participants to accept donations online? In my dreams! I had to use both email and regular mail, contacting every person in my address book. As I type this, Irsquo;m having bad flashbacks to numerous paper jams, countless trips to the bank to deposit checks, and many dollars spent on stamps that could have gone to the cause instead. Despite these challenges, I became one of the organizationrsquo;s top fundraisers in Northern California that year. (I also finished the marathon!) /P PThanks to the Internet and innovative companies like Convio, the world of fundraising has been transformed since then. Now, participants have access to the tools they need to raise money online. But in reality, having the tools is only half the battle for many individuals. Just as I needed some prodding to train regularly, participants need the occasional poke to keep them motivated and focused on achieving their fundraising goal. And who better to push them along than the organization behind the event! /P PFrom the combination of my personal experience, information gathered from a survey and subsequent interviews with successful individual fundraisers, and a discussion with Noel Beebe at Convio at the time of gathering information for the A target=_blank href="http://my.convio.com/forms/2010ResolutionsGuide"2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide/A, I gained insight into the many steps an organization can take to maximize the success of their participant fundraising. From these, I pulled together this set of lessons learned.nbsp; /P PTop 5 Lessons Learned in 2009: Participant Fundraising/P OL LISTRONGThe 5/50 rule/STRONG. Basically, your top five percent of fundraisers bring in more than 50 percent of the fundraising dollars for participant-led events. (This one came as a bit of a shock to me. I think of it as a variation of the 80/20 rule.) These are the folks who deserve a pat on the back or a more personalized thank you for their efforts thus far. Theyrsquo;ll likely return the favor and stay connected to your organization long after they reach the finish line./LI LISTRONGDo the heavy lifting work./STRONG No, you donrsquo;t fundraise on behalf of your participants, but you can make it easier for them to raise money for your organization by eliminating (or at least lowering) hurdles. One of the biggest ones?nbsp; Writing the email to solicit donations. So, do your fundraisers a favor and create an email template for them. It doesnrsquo;t have to be fancy, but it should have some basic elements (e.g., explain the organizationrsquo;s mission, provide a call to action, and make it obvious how to donate). Let the participants tailor the message by adding details about why they decided to support the cause and maybe an image to personalize their request.nbsp;/LI LISTRONGPast performance is an indicator of future performance/STRONG. This isnrsquo;t the stock market folks. You can rely on historical data points as indicators for what lies ahead. If an individual participated in an event before, then theyrsquo;ll likely do it again. So sift through the list of last yearrsquo;s participants and reach out to them first./LI LISTRONGShow some love to past participants/STRONG. If I participated in your event last year, then show me a little love (and respect) when you reach out to me this year. Donrsquo;t send me the generic ldquo;Please join our eventrdquo; email that you send to everyone whose email address you tracked down. No, I expect a little more from you. Irsquo;m not registrant #1967. I have a name. I have a history with your organization. I have a tie to your cause. Acknowledge my previous involvement.nbsp; If Irsquo;m going to dedicate countless hours to raise money for your organization, then I expect you to make a bit of an effort by acknowledging our lsquo;relationshiprsquo;. After all, wersquo;ve already had our lsquo;first datersquo;!nbsp;/LI LISTRONGA little social media can go a long way./STRONG What started off as a means to stay connected with people and share content, has transformed the way we interact with each other. There are so many opportunities to put this channel to good use.nbsp; Your organization can use social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) to promote your event and recruit participants. You can also encourage registered participants to use social media to help them reach their fundraising goal.nbsp;/LI/OL PEven more lessons learned and ideas can be found in the A target=_blank href="http://my.convio.com/forms/2010ResolutionsGuide"2010 Nonprofit Resolutions Guide/A, and of course, I know there are many other tips participant fundraisers must have. So please chime in with your ideas. What worked for your organization in 2009? And what are you looking to do in 2010?BR/Pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=Mx9XG9RVxgA:qU2VATTn33o:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Jordan Viator/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/jordan-viator-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / PIn the pastnbsp;8 days, the surge of generosity for Haiti relief has been amazing.nbsp; In less than a week, nonprofits using Convio systems have raised over $100 million through email appeals, websites and social media outreach and many other organizations are raising record amounts. Most importantly the support continues to roll in. /P PUnfortunately there are some bad people in the world too. Itrsquo;s at this point that some begin seeing frauds and schemes for individuals to capitalize on the relief efforts. And while every donor should take measures to be as savvy as possible when it comes to giving to organizations, there are many resources available to make this a simple task./P PIn an article by A target=_blank href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2010803534_tips_on_safer_and_more_effecti.html"the Seattle Times/A, the FBI has advised on a short list of tips to help avoid scams including STRONGnot responding to unsolicited emails/STRONG, being STRONGskeptical of anyone representing themselves as a survivor needing help through email or social networking/STRONG, STRONGverifyingnbsp; non-profits/STRONG through independent Internet searching rather than following links, making STRONGcontributions directly to known organizations/STRONG and STRONGnot giving out personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions/STRONG./P PCharity Navigator, Americarsquo;s largest independent charity evaluator, provided last week A target=_blank href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.viewcpid=1004"the following in-depth list of tips and tricks to help fund Haiti relief efforts/A and ensure funds go to deserving, good-intentioned organizations:/P OL LISTRONGAvoid Newly-Formed Charities and Give To An Established Charity That Has Worked In Haiti/STRONG - Establishing a new charity is hard enough, but in a crisis, the odds of succeeding are slim to none. Think of it this way: would you entrust all your savings in a financial firm that just opened, doesn't even have stationery, and whose employees have no experience in investing money? Doubtful. Find a charity with a proven track record of success in providing disaster relief and one that has worked in Haiti. Start with the list of charities on the right and if a group you are considering supporting isnrsquo;t there, then take the time to A target=_blank href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.viewcpid=847"thoroughly research/A it before making a gift. LISTRONGDo Not Give To The Haitian Government/STRONG ndash; Haiti is known to be a A target=_blank href="http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/cpi_2009_table"corrupt country/A. And A target=_blank href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135181.htm"news reports/A post earthquake indicate that the government is pretty much not functioning. If that isnrsquo;t enough reason not to give directly to the Haiti government, then consider the fact that contributions to foreign governments are not tax deductible. LISTRONGDesignate Your Investment/STRONG ndash; Generally, it is best to trust your chosen charity to spend your donation as it sees fit. But with disaster related giving, you should specify that you want your donation only used to respond to this particular crisis. LISTRONGDo Not Send Supplies/STRONG ndash; Knowing that millions of people are desperately in need of food and water, it is hard not to want to pack up a box of supplies and send it to Haiti. But this type of philanthropy is simply not practical or efficient. Even if mail could get to Haiti, no one is set up to receive these goods, much less organize and distribute them to the victims. Furthermore, charities are often able to partner with companies to acquire large amounts of in-kind donations such as bottled water and new clothing. Instead of boxing up and sending your old clothing, have a garage sale and turn your used goods into cash and donate that to a worthy charity. LISTRONGBe Careful Of Email SolicitationsBR/STRONG UL LIBe Leery Of People That Contact You Online Claiming To Be A Victim ndash; Unless you personally know someone in Haiti, anyone alleging to be in this position is most likely part of a scam. Obviously, people affected by the earthquake are in no position to contact you directly for assistance. LIDelete Unsolicited Emails With Attachments - Never respond to unsolicited emails. Do not open any attachments to these emails even if they claim to contain pictures from Haiti. These attachments are probably viruses. /LI/UL LISTRONGSeek Out The Charityrsquo;s Authorized Website/STRONG ndash; Refer to our A target=_blank href="http://blog.charitynavigator.org/2010/01/beware-of-scam-charities-popping-up.html"blog from yesterday/A as to why this is important.nbsp; LISTRONGIs it safe to make a text donation?/STRONG - So long as you do your homework, yes. A target=_blank href="http://blog.charitynavigator.org/2010/01/are-text-donations-safe.html"Please visit our blog for a longer explanation./A LISTRONGConsider The Nature Of The Charityrsquo;s Work/STRONG ndash; Not every charity is responding in the same way. Some are providing medical assistance, some shelter, some food and water. Others will be more focused on either short term or long term rebuilding efforts. And some are just helping to fundraise for other nonprofits. Think about what it is you want your philanthropic investment to accomplish and then take the time to find the charities doing that work. At Charity Navigator we link to each charityrsquo;s website so that you can quickly learn more about their plans to help in Haiti.nbsp; LISTRONGBe Inspired By Social Media, But Still Do Your Homework/STRONG ndash; Social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs are delivering heart-wrenching images and information about Haiti to our computers and phones. Many of them include pleas to donate. While these tools can be a powerful tool to inspire your desire to help, you should not blindly give via these vehicles. You must take the time to investigate the groups behind such pleas for help to ensure that it comes from a legitimate nonprofit. For example, you can donate $10 to the A target=_blank href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summaryorgid=3277"American Red Cross/A by texting ldquo;Haitirdquo; to 90999. As of today [when this article was first posted], A target=_blank href="http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.94aae335470e233f6cf911df43181aa0/?vgnextoid=15c0c5a210826210VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD"this tool has raised $3 million for the Haiti earthquake relief efforts/A.nbsp;EM(*this number has been greatly supassed at the time of this posting)/EMnbsp; LISTRONGAvoid Telemarketers/STRONG ndash; As always, A target=_blank href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.viewcpid=224"hang up the phone do your homework and give directly to a charity./Anbsp; LISTRONGDo Not Expect EMImmediate/EM Results, But Do Keep Tabs On What Your Donation Accomplishes/STRONG- It takes time for charities to mobilize, to assess the problems that need to be addressed and to develop effective solutions. Donors need to be patient so charities will not feel pressured to plunge in and offer ineffective aid, simply to placate impatient donors. That doesn't mean donors shouldn't hold the charities accountable for delivering on their promises! Be sure to follow up with the charity in a few months to find out (a) how your donation was put to use and (b) if the organization needs additional support to complete the recovery effort./LI/OL PSTRONGNote: as we compile additional tips to follow during this time of increased likelihood of fraud, we will continue to update the above list. /STRONG/P Pnbsp;/Pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=f4QhfKt5NEY:gOlRxCIy7ko:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Brandy Reppy/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/brandy_reppy-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / PMy team here at Convio has started getting more and more invested in content strategy, and to be honest, Irsquo;m totally geeking out. As a A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_communication"technical communications/A major, Irsquo;ve always had a particular propensity for all things regimented about writing. I canrsquo;t help it. /P PI already was following RSS and Twitter feeds associated with grammar and writing, but Irsquo;m always on the hunt for more. Recently, Irsquo;ve become a big fan of the A href="http://www.wordspy.com/"Word Spy site/A, or, more accurately the A href="http://twitter.com/wordspy"Word Spy twitter feed/A, which highlights new words and phrases (e.g., A href="http://www.wordspy.com/words/emailapnea.asp"email apnea/A and A href="http://www.wordspy.com/words/nontroversy.asp"nontroversy/A). As such am constantly on the prowl for new words and phrases./PIMG align=right src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/peacock.jpg" alt="Peacock" PSo, you can imagine my utter delight when I stumbled across this phrase as I was reading an entry on Wikipedia: ldquo;This paragraph SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"may contain unsourced A title="Wikipedia:Avoid peacock terms" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_peacock_terms"peacock terms/A that merely promote the subject without imparting verifiable information/SPAN.rdquo;/P PI canrsquo;t say I know the root origin for the word ldquo;unsourcedrdquo;, but I was more immediately intrigued by the concept of peacock terms. Essentially these are adjectives or prepositional phrases that donrsquo;t really have any facts associated with them, but are added simply to be promotional. Examples of these include phrases like EMamong the greatest, the most influential,/EM and the most important./P PCertainly there are some times when these are necessary or warranted (something can be the longest, the largest, or the finest), but this guideline is telling Wikipedia content contributors to focus on two core principles of content creation: know your audience and focus on your message. The point of adding information to Wikipedia is to give information seekers more information. Adding irrelevant wordsnbsp;and phrasesnbsp;disregards these two characteristics, thereby weakening the information and defeating the purpose of Wikipedia./P PWithout arguing the merits of all Wikipedia articles as fact (seeA href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_in_culture#Wikiality" wikiality/A), I have to applaud a guideline that says that even though anyone can be a content contributor, there have to benbsp;rules in place in order to maintain the effectiveness of the site. /P PHow many organizations and businesses can say that they havenbsp;guidelines like this? I could rattle off a long list of websites that use a lot of words but donrsquo;t offer lot of content. SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"nbsp;/SPANThese organizations have lost sight of who they are writing for and what they are trying to convey, and their websites are weaker for it./P PMaintaining focus when you write content can be difficult, but losing focus on who the audience is for the content and why they are coming to your site can be detrimental to your mission. Take a cue from Wikipedia on this one, and check out your content. If you notice more conjecture than fact, it may be time to implement the peacock term rule and start trimming away some of the showy feathers. /Pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=yhWDOdPDRGY:qPaaXVywaVc:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

pAuthor: Amber Wobschall/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/amber-wobschall-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / PIMG style="FLOAT: right; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/mlkjr.jpg" alt="MLK"I am struck this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by this quote of his:/P PEM"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."/EM /P PI feel inspired by the outpouring of support for Haiti we've seen this past week. Not only are there A target=_blank href="http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2010/january/tragedy-in-haiti-how-can-i.html"so many groups/A working to help, but at a time when many Americans face A target=_blank href="http://www.slate.com/id/2216238/"unemployment/A layoffs, reduced hours and pay cuts - people are taking a moment to give what they can. Often just $10. /P PAs we know, you can donate $10 to the A target=_blank href="http://www.redcross.org"Red Cross/A for Haiti relief by texting ldquo;Haitirdquo; to 90999.nbsp; Small gifts via text - this is where grassroots giving, meets todayrsquo;s technology. You don't need to give much, but collectively these small gifts can have a major impact./P PAs of Friday, the American Red Cross had raised $9 million in mobile giving through this program. Just the day before, their blog showcased A target=_blank href="http://redcrosschat.org/2010/01/14/your-mobile-giving-by-state/"state by state/A mobile giving numbers. Itrsquo;s inspiring to see that even people in states facing tremendous job loss are also willing to give at this time.BRnbsp;/Pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=hPHmVTAe1Cg:EZ1ZuhR_WsU:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div