Resources non-profit agencies can use for sharing information with groups

As a non-profit organization, you have a lot of information to share about your mission, events, financial reports, donations, volunteers, etc. Not only do you have a large volume of information to share, but you have to share it with a variety of different stakeholder groups. Luckily, the internet gives you a plethora of resources, even though sometimes it can seem a bit overwhelming. Today, we’re going to investigate a few options you have when it comes to sharing information with a group of people (some are even FREE).

Create you own website. Seems straightforward, right? Well, in theory it is. But it can be difficult if you do not have a background in website creation or cannot dedicate the time it takes to update the site. If you don’t have your own independent website now or are looking to revamp your site, then I suggest checking out wordpress.org. WordPress is a free Content Management System that allows users to create dynamic sites on their servers. It is fairly user-friendly for those of you who might be a little apprehensive about diving in.

Facebook Groups. Regardless of whether or not you’re operating a website for your agency, chances are that you are familiar with Facebook. If your organization doesn’t have a page, then I suggest you create one because it is an easy way to promote your mission.  Facebook also allows users to create “groups” (which is different from your agency’s “page”). You can create separate groups (even with restricted access) for board members, volunteers, and donors. This will enable you to share information that might only be appropriate or applicable to that specific group. One thing to keep in mind is that Facebook is known for having a few privacy concerns and people might not be comfortable with combining their personal and professional lives on Facebook.

Email Lists. Sometimes simple is best. These days everyone is familiar with email and use it to receive information on a daily basis. Your agency probably already has a large email list, but is it being maintained? Are email addresses cleaned out if they are no longer active? If you are looking for a newsletter manager check out MailChimp or Webber. Both are effective applications that can help you manage your email subscription lists.

AllPlayers.com. What is so cool about AllPlayers.com that I’ve given them their own section in today’s blog post? Well, AllPlayers.com allows users to create a website focused on sharing information with groups of people in a simple manner, and it is all FREE. Don’t let the name AllPlayers fool you into thinking this is a service for sports teams only. There are plenty of resources on this site for non-profits to use. By using AllPlayers.com to create a site for your organization, you can update your volunteer calendar, accept donations, post announcements, and more.

Another thing I like about AllPlayers is that they allow everyone involved in the organization to register for your website. This makes keeping records up-to-date easy and simple.  As a COPPA compliant organization, AllPlayers takes privacy seriously, and all of the data uploaded to AllPlayers.com can be exported.

Finally, I think the most valuable feature of AllPlayers.com is the support that you receive. You don’t need to be a “techie” to set up your site because the whole site is based on drag-and-drop technology, which makes it very easy for users to configure. This can save your agency money that otherwise would be spent on IT costs. Furthermore, AllPlayers offers free training and is even willing to set-up your site (for a small fee, of course). Your AllPlayers site can be a separate entity from your organization’s website, or it can become your stand alone website. Here are some examples of how some Boys & Girls Clubs are using AllPlayers:

Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove

Boys & Girls Clubs of Middlesex County

Boys & Girls Clubs of Arlington

Boys & Girls Clubs of Oxnard & Port Huneme

AllPlayers has also put together a brief presentation on how Boys & Girls Clubs can use AllPlayers.com. I invite all of you to take a look and see how you might be able to use this service. You can download the file by clicking here.

These are just a few options you have when it comes to sharing information with people already involved with your organization, but I’m sure they aren’t the only ones.  What systems are you currently using? What do you like about it? What challenges do you face when it comes to sharing information? Let’s talk about it in the comment section. Please scroll down and post your thoughts!

From the mouths of donors: Part 4

After more than 60 posts to this blog over the last few months, I’ve decided that many of you are probably tired of hearing me pontificate day-in-and-day-out. So, this week I am changing things up a little bit. Last week I launched an anonymous online survey via various social media channels and my email address book. I’ve picked four really awesome responses to share with you this week that I think provide excellent lessons for non-profit and fundraising professionals. Enjoy!!!

Again … the survey was anonymous because I wanted the truth, the whole truth and nothing up the truth. Here is what the today’s highlighted survey respondent said:

Question: Using the comment box below, please write a paragraph or two answering some of the following questions. Of the charities to whom you currently donate money, which one is your favorite?  How did you first learn about this charity? Why did you make that first contribution? Why are you still contributing? How do you know that your contribution is making a difference? What does the charity do to demonstrate it is having an impact?

AnswerUnited Way, Youth Outlook, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, Heifer Foundation. I was contacted by mail or e-mail, and the charity mission resonates with me personally. They are all my favorites. I really believe that, “For it is in giving that we receive” and in some way I feel good about me giving. I wish I wasn’t so shallow, but it really is about me. I feel good about me buying a gaggle of geese or a goat to help a “real family” support itself. I know they don’t really do that, but I give anyway.

Question: Understanding that these are tough economic times and no donor’s contribution ever should be taken for granted, what does your favorite charity need to do (or show you) in order to renew your support and/or increase the size of your contribution?

Answer: Ask. Tell me a story. Don’t make it too sappy, though. I won’t trust that.

Hmmm … can you tell what kind of real happiness that charitable giving brings to this person’s life? Here is what struck me about these responses:

  1. I am reminded that there have been scientific studies looking at why people give to charity, and they echo what this very smart donor said: “…I feel good…” Click here to read more about this phenomenon. Hmmm … maybe we need to teach our volunteer solicitors about this ground breaking research so they might stop being so fearful about asking for contributions.
  2. In this donor’s second response, I am reminded of an online interview I read with Jim Grote. It was the first time I ever heard of the concept of “Narrative Philanthropy”. In a nutshell, good fundraisers are good storytellers. Click here to read that interview for yourself. I promise that it may change your life! I am also reminded that stewardship doesn’t have to be about fundraising professionals “telling” donors stuff, but it can also be about “asking” for feedback and input.

How does your organization train volunteer solicitors to become awesome storytellers? Do your fundraising volunteers see their jobs are “arm twisting” or do they see themselves as “dream-makers”? What do you do to help your fundraising volunteers with these paradigm shifts? Please use the comment box below to share because we can learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson
Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
eanderson847@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

ePhilanthropy: Mission Possible

Last week, I dedicated the entire week’s worth of blog posts to exploring ePhilanthropy related topics. However, I still have a few thoughts that slopped over into this week. Today, I wrap-up this ePhilanthropy series by looking at how non-profits (especially under-resourced organizations) might begin preparing for the future.

Executive directors and resource development professionals don’t need to walk down this road alone. There are people who serve on your board of directors who work in the for-profit sector and are light years ahead of us when it comes to e-commerce. Additionally, there are so many people who are tech enthusiasts in your community who would love to volunteer for you just so they can play some more with technology.

The first step for any organization is to recruit people and build a team to help you. I don’t think you should make this a committee of only tech-minded people. Try to recruit volunteers who have the following skill sets: 1) technology acumen or curiosity, 2) an understanding of and love for your mission, 3) a personal track record of donating to other charities online, and 4) some basic understanding of how resource development works (or a willingness to learn).

It is always a best practice for a committee or work group to collaborating on creating a written “annual work plan” before rolling up their sleeves and getting to work.  For this particular group, I suggest the work plan for Year One of this project involve the following discussion items:

  • Review and recommend to the board of directors that they adopt Network for Good’s ePhilanthropy Code of Ethics.
  • Evaluate your website and make sure your evaluation process includes asking donors to weigh-in on content and functionality.
  • Make a plan for redesigning your website and incorporate action items that transition your site from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 (include installing and using data analytics ). If you have the capacity to start implementing your plan in Year One, then charge down that road gleefully. Try to include a blog (one that you use weekly) and video to tell your organization’s story to online donors.
  • Look at your email house file and how your organization encourages supporters to provide their contact info. Make a plan with measurable goals for increasing the number of emails in your database and put it into action. (See yesterday’s blog about email)
  • Create a simple e-newsletter that drives readers back to your website by encouraging them to “click-through” using html hyperlinks. Make sure you’ve purchased an email service provider and use it to distribute your e-newsletter. Also make sure that you are using the built-in data analytics that come with these services. Experiment with different things and see what results in better traffic. (Remember: this means that your website content needs to be updated regularly)
  • Make a plan for social media that includes Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It should answer the simple question of how you plan on using each platform and which target audience you hope to speak to. The plan also needs to address how you plan on building an “online following” as well as what content is shared (how often and by whom). Above all, it needs to look at the idea of creating an “online conversation” with target audiences. This isn’t just about shouting marketing and fundraising messages into cyberspace.

Phew … that probably seems like a lot of stuff to accomplish in Year One for some organizations. If so, no problem … break some of these initial work plan items into multiple years. Walt Disney summed it up best when he said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” It doesn’t matter how slow or fast you move. The important thing is that you start moving!

Keep in mind that engaging your donors (via surveys, interviews, focus groups, recruitment to the committee, etc) is a great way to be “donor-centered” and ensure that your ePhilanthropy plans will meet their needs.

So, what is your organization doing to position itself for ePhilanthropy? Have you learned any lessons? If so, please share using the comment box below. We can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson
Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
eanderson847@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Email is tricky. Period!

Sorry about the earlier accidental blog post. What can I say about my fat fingers and mis-clicks? LOL

Last week, I dedicated the entire week’s worth of blog posts to exploring ePhilanthropy related topics. Needless to say, I still have a few thoughts I couldn’t squeeze into last week. Today, I turn my attention to email and tomorrow I will try to wrap everything up into a nice package before moving onto new topics.

So, how do you use email and what are some challenges you’re experiencing?

For those of you who know me, you know that I tend to misuse email and sometimes send something that looks more like a novel or manafesto. The reality is that many organizations make the same mistake with their e-newsletters. I’ve seen too many e-newsletters that simply look like an electronic version of their snail-mail cousin.

What I  recently learned as part of an ePhilanthropy pilot project was that your e-newsletter will be most effective if the following occurs:

  • Use more white space and pictures than you do words.
  • Design your e-newsletter so that the reader doesn’t need to use the scroll bars (at least not much).
  • Keep the e-newletter to two or three major stories. Make sure your donor-focused e-newsletters has stories that demonstrate your program effectiveness and community impact. Try to have a story that serves as a “call-to-action” for volunteers and donors.
  • Keep each story to two or three short sentences with hyperlinks that jumps them to a page on your website to read about the details.
  • Use an email service provider to avoid getting blacklisted by your donors’ Internet Service Providers (ISP) as a spammer. Check-out Emma or Constant Contact.

Non-profits are using email for EVERYTHING such as: prospect cultivation, donor solicitation, donor stewardship, board communications, marketing, and much more. The challenge is that the email channel’s effectiveness is degrading quicker than the snail-mail channel did. Don’t believe me? Think about the last time you opened your email inbox … was there a lot of “click, click, click … delete, delete, delete” going on? Or did you have problems downloading an html email? And what about the newest trend where we’re all reading our email on our smart phones? UGH!

And another problem non-profit organizations seem to wrestle with is the process of collecting email addresses. Penelope Burk reported in her book “Donor-Centered Fundraising” that “47-percent of non-profit do not communicate with their donors via email.” She shared that the biggest reason was not having donors’ email addresses.  Click here for some great suggestions on getting better at collecting email addresses.

We all need to get better at using best practices if our organizations are going to succeed in this new ePhilanthropy environment. The trick is staying up-to-date on the ever changing best practices environment . As I said on Friday, I suggest frequently visiting Network for Good’s online learning center website. Click here to see all sorts of resources pertaining to email.

OMG … I can write an entire week about email, but I will stop here. Please jump into the discussion and share some of the best practices you find most valuable. How do you know when your organization is over-using email and what have you done about it? Are you integrating email into your marketing and fundraising efforts? If so, how? Are you using email analytics to track your open-rate and click-through rates? What are you finding? We can learn from each other!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson
Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
eanderson847@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Tweet me the money

As I mentioned on Monday, I plan on using the rest of my blog posts this week to look at different aspects of ePhilanthropy. Hopefully, I will be able to cover a lot of different subjects including Twitter, Facebook, email, websites, PURLs, online video, blogs, and more. Today, let’s touch on Twitter.

As I drove my good friend Teri to Midway airport on Monday, we started talking about social media and the role we see it playing in resource development. We both agreed that what we see being most successful is non-profit organizations using social media to acquire new prospects, spreading the word about their mission, focusing on their case for support, and stewarding donors by communicating ROI messages. Neither of us were able to really come up with very good examples of how social media has been used as a solicitation tool and raised substantial money.

This ate at me as I made the trip home from Midway airport. So, once I got home, I started searching for an example of a non-profit organization that used social media to solicit donors and could be held up as a success story. It didn’t take me long and I am a little embarrassed that I quickly found an example in my very own backyard of Elgin, Illinois.

In 2009, the Community Crisis Center has struggling because the State of Illinois is broke and significantly behind on paying reimbursements to non-profits holding state contracts. It was in this moment of need that The Center turned to public relations guru and social media expert Sarah Evans and asked her to work her online magic.

Sarah organized an online fundraising event that she called “Crisis Overnight“. On June 18th, she took her laptop to The Center and spent the night. All night, she blogged and Tweeted about her experience, what she saw, and the stories that unfolded in front of her. In a nutshell, Sarah brought the mission and case for support alive online. With every Tweet and blog post, she pointed her friends and supporters to an online donation page.

Needless to say, people were moved and Sarah was very successful. Her fundraising goal was $150,000 and she raised $121,397 according to the Community Crisis Center’s 2009 annual report. Not only did 700 donors make contributions online, but people got in their cars and drove donations to The Center ($800 arrived by foot between 6:00 and 9:00 pm alone).

This was not magic … here are just a few observations:

  • The technology didn’t raise the money. It was Sarah’s masterful way of bringing the mission to life, making the case for donors to get involved, telling stories about clients and services, and creating a sense of urgency.
  • It wasn’t just Twitter or blog or website or email … it was multi-channel and integrated. She used many tools and funneled everyone to an online donation page.
  • She didn’t just yell at the top of her lungs into the Twitosphere. She used the hashtag to focus and nurture a mission-focused conversation that walked people down the path of action.

So, here is one very cool example that flies in the face of what I initially believed about social media only being good for non-solicitation activities.

Has your organization ever attempted to use social media to solicit individuals? How did you do it? Was it successful or not? Why or why not? If not your organization, have you seen others try it? What was the result? We can learn from each other. Please use the comment box to share with everyone!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson
Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
eanderson847@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Deja vu and ePhilanthropy

An old friend of mine, Autumn Porter, sent me a Facebook message last week asking for help reconciling two very different ideas — face-to-face solicitations versus online videos & electronic pledge forms. As I stewed on how to respond to her, it dawned on me that resource development professionals, who have come before me, must have had a similar “moment”. I suspect that this deja vu moment probably occurred at the advent of the direct mail era.

First let me frame Autumn’s dilemma. On one hand, she was told that she needs to get out there, roll up her sleeves, infiltrate professional networks, schedule in-person workplace solicitation meetings, and ask … ask … ask. On the other hand, she has been told by a local employer that they are an “electronic workplace” and really think it would be better to ask their employees to view an online video over the company’s internal network and be given the opportunity to complete an electronic pledge form. Here is Autumn’s question:

“How do I begin to merge these two tangents into some sort of donor-centric approach?  Are there examples of using social media to tie us directly to their heartstrings?  Can we create a lasting connection of the human experience without being in the same square-footage?  If people give to people, how do we continue to reach the people with the capacity to give?”

As I said earlier, “deja vu” all over again! With that being said, I suspect that those fundraising professionals who addressed similar questions during the rise of direct mail would probably stand here today with the same advice … “Know Thy Donor” and solicit them in the manner that they would like to be solicited. I also firmly believe that resource development professionals know that face-to-face solicitation is the most effective, efficient and respectful way to solicit. As such, good RD professionals know that there is a threshold when direct mail, email, social media and telephone calls are not respectful and in those circumstances they reach into their solicitation toolkit and use the most appropriate tool.

So, my best advice to Autumn can be summed up by this YouTube video highlighting a psychic, cosmic conversation between Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi.

All kidding aside, I plan on using the remainder of this week’s blog posts to talk about ePhilanthropy and social media. In the meantime, I am interested in how you would answer Autumn’s questions. Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your best world-class advice.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson
Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
eanderson847@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Viruses, hackers, spyware and donors oh my

Last Thursday, I turned my computer on and started preparing to write my daily blog, when suddenly my virus software sprang into action. A pop-up window told me that my computer was infected with a trojan virus and asked if I wanted it removed. Of course, I said ‘YES’. In a blink of an eye, I was staring at the dreaded “blue screen of death,”and I was obviously out of commission. It was for this reason you did not see any blog posts from me on Thursday or Friday.

During my unplanned time down, I started thinking about how non-profit organizations probably deal with this on a daily basis and how in some instances it could even impact donors who routinely feed us their personal information (e.g. name, address, phone, email, credit card and banking info, etc).

Upon further investigation, did you know that the Obama team, who has collected tons of donor information at donate.barackobama.com, had to dealt with hackers as recently as a year ago? And “Twitter hacking” has been in the news recently for reasons I refuse to go into.

Non-profit organizations are constantly collecting information on their donors and storing it in their donor database. In fact, with the social media revolution in full swing, non-profits are pushing further by “friending” donors on Facebook, following donors on Twitter, and linking with donors on LinkedIn. All of these activities are intended to help deepen our relationships with donors and get to know them even better.

It is a brave new world and non-profit organizations need to make sure they are ready to deal with these issue. If you don’t think spyware, computer viruses, phishing and hackers are an issue, then go talk to our resource development friends at the University of Notre Dame  or Maine Public Broadcasting.

Put yourself in a donor’s shoes after being informed that your systems were compromised? Where is your confidence level? What is running through your mind the next time you’re asked to make a contribution?

Of course, the answer is not to unplug your donor database or shutdown the organization’s Facebook or Twitter accounts. However, you might consider the following:

  • Develop a privacy policy for donors like the one Hope House has posted on their website.
  • Use the Association of Fundraising Professional’s (AFP) Code of Ethical Principles & Standards and The Donor Bill of Rights as a foundation to develop your resource development policies.
  • Develop a crisis management plan like the one United Way of Marion County in Florida has posted to the internet and consider involving donors in the policy development process so you can capture their point of view on how they’d like to be informed on certain matters.
  • Develop a documentation retention policies so you know what you need to keep and how to securely keep it. Blue Avocado has done a nice job getting you started down this road, but you definitely need to involve your board volunteers, Finance Committee, auditors, and possibly even your donors in developing your own policies.
  • Use virus software and spyware software routinely. Check out Tech Soup’s “virus protection toolkit”.
  • Don’t ever email donor data or information.

If you really want to scare yourself, spend a few moments with this PowerPoint presentation from our friends at NTEN.  Scared yet?

So, how do you protect your donor data? If your systems got hacked or compromised, how would you go about informing your donors and dealing with the crisis? Please weigh-in and share so we can all learn together!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson
Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
eanderson847@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Boards should meet NOT email

I opened my e-newsletter from Jean Block yesterday, scrolled through it, and nearly jumped out of my chair when I read her link to an article in The Non-Profit Quarterly about boards that are voting on issues in between meetings using email . In a nutshell, the article spells out all the reasons why taking email votes is neither legal nor a very practice. I strongly encourage you to click the previous link and read the article for yourself (after you are done reading this blog, of course … LOL).

My former supervisor at Boys & Girls Clubs of America used to periodically rant to me about email. If I heard it once I heard it one hundred times … “email is an information technology and not a communication tool”.  Regardless of whether or not you agree with him, I think we can all agree that email has its limitations. I thought the MAXIMUMadvantage website did a good job of naming the times that email is not appropriate.

Board members that use email voting are not exercising their fiduciary responsibilities. How in the world can we “discuss” important issues unless we’re engaged in a “real-time” discussion?

I know that there are people reading this blog who are saying to themselves that board members are “too busy”. To those folks, I suggest that anyone who doesn’t have time to attend board meetings probably shouldn’t be a board volunteer.

Please don’t misunderstand … there are appropriate roles for everyone in your organization. You just need to take the time to be donor-centered and relationship-oriented by getting to know the person and finding the right opportunity for them to support your mission.

Not every big donor or important person needs to be on the board of directors. It is possible to “engage” donors and community decision-makers without asking them to join the board.

  • Ask them to be a program volunteer or fundraising volunteer.
  • Ask them to help with strategic planning or participate in a focus group or a special project.
  • Just listen and then ask them to do something they are passionate about.

My bottom line is that square pegs shouldn’t be asked to fit into round holes.

Others of you might be saying that non-profit organizations have a tendency to “over meet” their volunteers. If that is the case, then I simply suggest that we need to figure out how not to do that. Instead, we should focus our efforts on having powerful and effective meetings. It “must be” possible because there is a website with the name effectivemeetings.com. LOL. At the very least, in all seriousness look into instituting a consent agenda.  Additionally, here is a YouTube video with a few meeting tips.

Other than a consent agenda, what other strategies are you using to streamline board meetings while maximizing impactful and strategic discussions that serve to engage and empower board volunteers? Please share your thoughts and practices in the comment section before another email proxy vote is sent out for consideration.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson
Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
eanderson847@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847