Has your non-profit discovered Quora yet?

questionsWhen I used to work at Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), my colleagues were responsible for the existence of something called theFUNDRAI$INGbank, which is a special webpage embedded inside of the intranet accessible to local affiliates. We outsourced maintenance of this page to FundRaisingInfo.com. There were many different resources located on “The Bank” including a free service called “Ask The Expert“.

Whenever I talk to agencies who aren’t Boys & Girls Clubs about “Ask The Expert,” I’m typically told how lucky local Boys & Girls Clubs are to have such a service (and to have access to it for free). Usually, somewhere in those conversations, the person with whom I’m speaking says they wish they had access to such a thing.

For those of you who don’t have a national organization behind them offering such resources and services, I’ve always told them not to fret because we now live in the 21st Century and answers are mostly just a click away. I’ve encouraged non-profit friends to open their minds to the full potential that Google search offers them. I’ve also reminded them about how many non-profit bloggers are out there begging for comments, questions and engagement (this blogger not withstanding).

Now I am adding another suggestion to those non-profit staff and board volunteers who are in search of answers for free . . .

QUORA

Have you checked out this new online Q&A webpage yet? If not, I suggest you do so because it looks like a great resource for non-profit folks with questions. Here is what Wikipedia says about Quora:

quoraQuora is a question-and-answer website created, edited and organized by its community of users. The company was founded in June 2009, and the website was made available to the public on June 21, 2010.[3]

Quora aggregates questions and answers to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users’ answers.[4] Quora’s main competitors are social bookmarking sites like redditsocial networking sites like ChaCha, and numerous question and answer websites.

Unlike BGCA’s “Ask The Expert” service, the answers and advice you get from Quora might not necessarily be from an amazing expert like the folks at FundRaisingInfo.com. However, if you go into it with the right mindset and an understanding that the answers you receive might just be from your peers, then this could be a great resource for you. At the very least, it represents a good starting point for finding answers.

Here are just some of the non-profit and fundraising questions that I see being asked on Quora:

  • What are some good platforms for online fundraising?
  • How do you manage memberships and donation drives in a small or medium size non-profit?
  • What cutting edge fundraising techniques are charities using?
  • What are the characteristics of high-performing non-profits?
  • How much power does a non-profit board have?

Interesting questions!

Of course, there is the obvious question, “What are some of the best ways non-profits can use Quora?Click here if you want to see responses.

When you have a question with which you’d like other people’s opinions, where do you go online? Google? WordPress? Blogger? Facebook? LinkedIn? Quora? Where do you find the most value in your search for answers? Have you used Quora yet? If so, what was your experience? Please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com 
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
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http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

5 comments

  1. Mr. Anderson, I do love this ‘Ask the Expert’ idea, I think it is ingenious.

    I haven’t used Quora for nonprofits, but I have used it for writing screenplays in my spare time. I find it decent, but it is hard to come across someone that has sold a screenplay and is willing to talk candidly. Fortunately, there are others in my same boat that I can bounce ideas off of and get nifty tips from.

    As far as nonprofits are concerned, I haven’t really considered Quora as a source of information on the subject. But I do thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I will definitely check out the material on the subject for some Twitter posts.

    Cho,
    Cody

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