December 2008

INTRODUCTION MOST POPULAR: Michelle Murrain on Open Source CRMs BEST OF: Social Media BEST OF: Websites BEST OF: Fundraising BEST OF: Messaging A Few of Your Favorite Things 1st Annual Geek Gift Guide

Visions of the 2009 NTC: better than sugar plums. We think. What is a sugar plum, anyway? If you like what you read, support us by becoming a member.

MOST POPULAR: MICHELLE MURRAIN ON OPEN SOURCE CRMs

Open Source CRMs: How Do They Stack Up?
Michelle Murrain, NOSI

Constituent Relationship Management systems are one of the bread and butter tools of nonprofit organizations: tracking donations, constituents, activities and the like are critical to accomplishing mission.

It makes sense then, that CRM and fundraising software are the most plentiful and mature software product vertical in the nonprofit sector. And there is an increasing amount of change and innovation in this realm: from open APIs on such stalwarts as Convio and Kintera, to newer open source alternatives like CiviCRM and MPower Open

The question is, how do the newer open source alternatives stack up to the long standing proprietary packages that people have gotten used to?

BEST OF: SOCIAL MEDIA

The ROI of Social Media
Beth Kanter, Social Media Guru

Over the past year, as more and more nonprofits have figured out how to integrate social networking and social media tools into their communications strategies, the question has remained: Do these tools and strategies really help nonprofits reach outcomes? While many of the tools are free, we still need to ask, "What's the value (ROI) of investing our time?"

There are a lot of intangible values that are hard to measure -- networking, engagement, and the like. The bottom line is that the metrics for measuring nonprofit success in social media or social networks is different from traditional web metrics. It is, in fact, a moving target.

 

10 Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond
Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb

It can be hard to convince leadership that working with social media doesn't mean they've been paying you to catch up with friends on Facebook. You've probably heard some of the objections:

• I suffer from information overload already.
• So much of what's discussed online is meaningless. These forms of communication are shallow and make us dumber. We have real work to do!
• I don't have the time to contribute and moderate. It looks like it takes a lot of time and energy.
• Our customers don't use this stuff. The learning curve limits its usefulness to geeks.
• Communicators [bloggers, tweeters] are so fickle, it's better to stay unengaged than risk random brand damage. We don't want hostile comments left about us on any forum we've legitimized.

And there are more. But there are ways you can respond. Here's a list of suggestions:

Also popular:

• Generating Buzz: Using Social Media to Drive Website Traffic, Danielle Brigida
• Developing a Social Media Plan: Lessons from Election 2008, Lauren-Glenn Davitian
• Facebook is a Bust, Annaliese Hoehling

BEST OF: WEBSITES

Landing Page Optimization 101
Nick Allen, Donordigital

Your website may educate and motivate your supporters, but its main purpose is probably to encourage them to take action-- send a message to Congress, attend an event, download a report, buy a t-shirt, or donate all their Google stock.

"Optimizing" your Web pages, especially the ones where you want people to take an action, can dramatically improve your conversation rates, persuading more visitors to actually take the action you want them to take.

What seem like very small changes on a page can sometimes make a huge difference. For example, when we removed just the title (Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc.) and suffix (Jr., M.D.) fields from Amnesty International's donation page, conversion improved 30%!

 

Web Traffic Spikes: When You Need Attention Now
Jonathon D. Colman, The Nature Conservancy

The rise of "web 2.0" has forever changed the game of online marketing. Sure, with enough time and money on your side, you could always draw customers to your site with impersonal ads, affiliate promotions, and expensive broadcast media. But if you're like me (and I am) then you're not made of money and your budget doesn't have room for surprises.

With social media, you can take direct, personal action to find new niches and leads within the most popular, dynamic sites on the web. The services are all free, getting set up is easy, and -- as you'll see -- your results are completely measurable.

Oh, and the people will come -- so many, in fact, that you might just crash your web site with all of the attention you receive. So while your IT staff may not be so happy with you, your ED will be quite pleased.

But wait, there's more:

• Building a Website with Hosted, Integrated Platforms, Laura Quinn
• Search Engine Optimization and Paid Search for Nonprofits, Kevin Lee and Bill Snyder

BEST OF: FUNDRAISING

Five Tactics to Rev Up Fundraising in a Down Economy
Randy McCabe, MPower Open

Many nonprofit professionals today are nervous. The economy, while showing hopeful signs, is still not in a good place. That means donors have less money in their portfolios and their pockets.

As a result, giving is down across the board. This is not how we want to enter the all important year-end giving season. With up to half of all donations coming in the last quarter of the calendar year, nonprofits need to start planning now so they can end the year strong and minimize the impact of these difficult times.

There are five simple things any organization can do to not only increase year-end results, but also maintain and even strengthen important long-term relationships with donors.

 

Debunking 5 Myths of Online Fundraising
Thon Morse, Kimbia

Today's challenging economic times mean a lot of nonprofits are looking for new ways to raise money. Many organizations realize the Internet presents a huge opportunity, but most have achieved limited success.

If your organization has yet to experience strong results raising funds online, the coming year provides an ideal window to experiment with new approaches. A good first step is dismissing some myths about online fundraising that may be standing in the way of your success:

• Myth #1: Online fundraising isn't as effective as offline techniques.
• Myth #2: People won't give online.
• Myth #3: Online fundraising means raising money through my organization's website.
• Myth #4: Technology is not the problem.
• Myth #5: Raising 10 percent of all gifts online is a great goal.

Keep reading (learning is good):

• How Will Your Nonprofit Raise Money in 2012?, Peter Deitz
• Rapid Donor Cultivation: Getting the First Online Gift Faster, Jenny L. Feinberg and Jeff Patrick

BEST OF: MESSAGING

You Are Not Your Target Audience
Brian Reich, EchoDitto

If you are in charge of marketing, recruitment, engagement, or fundraising for an organization, you spend most of your time looking for some tiny advantage -- something to generate buzz and differentiate your offering from the crowd of other organizations. There are, after all, thousands upon thousands of not-for-profit groups doing excellent work in local communities around the globe.

Too often, the decisions that organizations make when it comes to online marketing, especially non-profits, are dictated by "shiny object syndrome", a terrible affliction that results in a marketing path based on whatever is newest or generating the most buzz of the moment, instead of what will truly be effective.

To be successful, organizations need to share, clearly and consistently, the societal impacts of their efforts. They need to provide hands-on experiences that the user can explore and understand, and they need to demonstrate their commitment over time.

 

Texting, Facebook, Email, Blogs, MySpace, Aaaargh! How Should I Get the Word Out?
Michael Sabat, Mobile Commons

Your organization needs to understand how to send different messages to different people through different channels. It would never have made sense to run a TV commercial over the radio trying to reach a newspaper reader, just as it doesn't make sense trying to get an instant response from business people by messaging through your org's MySpace page. Getting the mix correct means you send the right message, through the right channel, reaching the right people to accomplish your goal.

So, how should mobile fit in your mix with regard to the messages, the people, and the goals involved?

A FEW OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS

When the velociraptors bite, when toxic waste stings: here are your favorite "Things We Like" links from 2008. Read more posts on our blog.

1. Forget Raymond: everybody loves the live puppy cam. A few pups have moved to new homes, but the cam's still there to warm the cockles of your heart. And wow, are they getting fat!
2. Planet Hazard, the scary Google Maps mash-up that shows who's polluting in your neighborhood.
3. DonorsResource.org connects in-kind donors to nonprofits in need. Sorry, the lot of 180 Beenie Babies have already been claimed.
4. There were a few items we're pretty sure you clicked just to find out what the heck they were:
   • NOLAYURP.org!
   • Loopt!
   • Visualizing Information for Advocacy!
5. In that same vein, audio blogging service Utterz has changed it's name to Utterli since last we checked in with them. Their spelling's still poor, but at least they ditched the cows.
6. This pie chart still looks delicious!
7. Google Labs keeps adding new features to Gmail. In addition to Mail Goggles -- which can help save you from an EUI (E-mailing Under the Influence) -- they've just added a to-do list and the ability to send SMS texts from gChat.
8. From No Impact Man: "42 Ways Not to Make Trash". We also admire his care not to split infinitives.
9. The Humane Society's LOLSeals campaign was one of the best we saw all year. Now, if somebody could combine a puppy cam with a fundraising drive...
10. As far as we know, nobody would survive longer than Karl chained to a bunkbed with a velociraptor. One minute, 35 seconds, people.
11. The New York Times visualizes how people around the world spend their money: "People in Greece spend almost 13 times more money on clothing as they do on electronics. People living in Japan spend more on recreation than they do on clothing, electronics and household goods combined. Americans spend a lot of money on everything." Not anymore!
12. Now that the election is over, has the question been answered: Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?
13. Wired wants you to "Get Ahead on LinkedIn", Collactive has a report on "High ROI for Social Media Marketing", Idealware has CRM case studies, and Mingle2 has a dating site for zombies. Those things are not necessarily related -- we're just sayin'.
14. Finally, a shout-out to Sprout for bringing widgets to the masses.

1ST ANNUAL GEEK GIFT GUIDE

Quite a few of the most popular items from "Things We Like" this year were giftable. Since shopping may be patriotic for only one more month, we thought we'd compile this handy gift guide.

1. First up: T-shirts!
   • The Wi-Fi Detector shirt actually glows when you're near a hot spot.
   • The Japanese take Creative Commons licensing to a new level with the C-Shirt.
   • NTEN's very own "I Love My Geek" shirt (spelled out in binary code).
   • "127.0.0.1 is the loneliest number": If you get the joke, you owe it to yourself to get the shirt.
2. Who wouldn't want a jar that lets you get ALL the peanut butter out?
3. Cool combination: a Roomba and the book Hacking Roomba. You can turn it into a wandering wi-fi hot spot!
4. Give somebody the gift of NTEN webinars with our Season Pass. Unlimited webinars = geek love.
5. The Roboraptor will play tug-of-war with you. Just don't use it near a bunkbed.
6. We have a friend who wants to name his next child "Lando". Think that's a good idea? Then you need The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film.
7. Still stuck for ideas? Try Spotfire's gift finder, which uses filters and statistical analysis to whittle down Amazon's offerings to a manageable level.
8. Or, if you like your materialism flavored with a dash of sweet, sweet altruism, check out:
• The Good Card from Network for Good.
• There's also the Global Giving gift card.
• You can actually donate to causes in a friend's name at ChangingThePresent.org.
• The Give List offers 71 ways to give without opening your wallet.
• Or check out "Five Geeky Ways to Give Back to the World, Even if You're Broke".

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