December 2009

NTEN: Warming the virtual cockles of your heart. If you like what you read, support us by becoming a member.

INTRODUCTION

2009 is dead! Long live 2009!

Time Magazine called the oughts the worst decade ever. It's certainly been tumultuous. Despite that, the last year of the first decade of the new century has at the very least been an interesting one.

In many ways, it's been an appropriate end to a decade of nonprofit technology growth. Our sector has become increasingly sophisticated, as evidenced by the NTEN newsletter over the last year.

This month, we bring you the best of the 2009 editions: all the things you guys clicked on and read most -- including cat videos! All the articles are a testament to how far we've moved our organizations and the sector. Sure, getting to this point has been rough, but you've all come a long way.

We're just proud to be part of the journey.

Best,

Holly

BEST OF: WEB SITES & SOCIAL MEDIA

A Five Step Program to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Web Pages
Avinash Kaushik, Google

We focus too much on micro reporting on our websites, most of which is comprised of too much page level analysis. When you get to page analysis, you can easily get down and dirty and waste too much time.

The time is right to focus on metrics, Key Performance Indicators, and tips on how to measure the effectiveness of individual pages. Basically:

  1. Don't Obsess About Your Home Page
  2. Compute Your Cliff, Then Jump
  3. Determine Your Bounce Rate
  4. Use the Site Overlay
  5. Think Holistically

 

How To: Create a Listening Dashboard for Your Organization
Amy Sample Ward, NetSquared

There are so many blogs, news sources, and conversations happening at the same time, every day, the chances that you'll be able to find them all without trying is pretty unlikely. There are hundreds of millions of blogs according to Technorati -- and that's just blogs!

Think of all the places your organization's name, staff, projects, programs, or focus area could come up in the news, in campaigns, or in online conversations.

To stay on top of it all, you need to create a listening dashboard for your organization. Here's how to do it!

You certainly love to obsess about social media and your web site. Here are a few more opportunities:

BEST OF: LEADERSHIP

Open Source Is Dead! Long Live Open Source!
Holly Ross, NTEN

That's right, I said it.

What I really mean is that open source, as we knew it, is dead. Over the last decade, what we've been talking about when we say "open source" is "open code" -- a set of zeroes and ones that we can configure to our heart's desire.

But, have you ever implemented an open source solution? We have here at NTEN. We use all kinds of open source tools, including our content management system, Drupal. Sure, it's highly customizable -- by a highly trained staffer, or a highly paid consultant. The code was free, but we paid tens of thousands of dollars to get our implementation up and running.

To me, open source code isn't necessarily any better than proprietary code. The costs, in time and money, are just placed elsewhere. The old arguments for open source software adoption are dead to me.

But please: promise to read the rest of this before you start sending me hate mail.

 

Dashboards: Track Your Organizational Progress
Karl Hedstrom, NTEN

NTEN's Dashboard is a snapshot of our many different program areas and associated goals. By tracking specific data related to our Memberships, Events, Website, and a few other areas, we can use the Dashboard to see at a glance where we ARE, where we WERE, and where we SHOULD BE (and sometimes even where we're GOING).

If your organization hasn't spent much time developing a dashboard, let our experience be your guide.

 

Cloud Computing 101: What You Need to Know
Rem Hoffmann, Exponent Partners and Rob Jordan, Idealist Consulting

Everyone has come across the term "cloud computing", but what exactly does it mean? What relevance does it have to a nonprofit organization like yours?

The short answer: Cloud computing levels the technology playing field for nonprofits. It no longer matters whether you have a sizeable budget or a shoestring budget: With cloud computing, sophisticated technology solutions are more accessible because all you need is access to the Internet.

BEST OF: MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Online Communications that Don't Suck
John Kenyon, Jennie Anderson, AIDS.gov, and William Neuheisel, DC Central Kitchen

Imagine producing online communications you're proud to share with the world and that garner praise from funders, donors, and other stakeholders.

Well, we are here to tell you that in general they are actually, um... pitiful. Dreadful. While there are exceptions, most have a lot of room for improvement.

And while social media and Web 2.0 are great, if you don't have an effective website and email communications, you are largely wasting your effort trying to engage new audiences online.

 

5 Key Metrics to Improve Your E-mail Campaigns
Jeff Patrick, Common Knowledge

Email marketing is the foundation for most nonprofits' education, advocacy, volunteering, and fundraising efforts online and the best practices for evaluating email marketing campaigns are well established. But nonprofits continue to underutilize ways to measure and evaluate the success of these campaigns.

It's not hard to take the first step to improving your email campaign performance through evaluation and optimization.

But wait, there's more:

BEST OF: FUNDRAISING

Online Donors: Why They Leave and How to Win Them Back
Rebecca Higman and Katya Andresen, Network for Good

Online donors can be summed up with a phrase that would make an excellent soap opera title: the young and the generous.

They tend to be under 40 and their gifts are around $100. We want more donors like them: they account for most of our acquisition, and they are a leading source of new revenue for most nonprofits.

The trick is getting them to stay once they give. We've developed some tips to help you learn how to improve your cultivation strategy (or combat a lack thereof) and what fool-proof avenue will satisfy donors and Board members alike.

 

Effective Fundraising with Facebook Causes
Susan Gordon, Causes

Facebook provides an unprecedented opportunity for nonprofits: 200 million monthly active users, about half of whom are signing in and communicating with their friends on a daily basis, is an organizer's dream.

But can nonprofits fundraise effectively using Causes?

Our top fundraising cause is the Nature Conservancy who has raised $262,984 to date, and we've seen another 15 nonprofits raise over $50,000 so far. Across the platform, users have donated over $9 million in 24 months and our daily donation total is up 10x over the past 12 months.

We're not promising a magic bullet for fundraising. But we have developed some excellent tools that, when combined with your knowledge of fundraising and messaging, can bring in donations from new donors who you have never before reached.

A FEW OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS

Here are your favorite "Things We Like" links from 2009. Read more posts on our blog.
  1. Patience pants. Not only is it nifty piece, it attracted some of our best spam comments of the year: "Thanks for pants. Have you thought of making a whole patience outfit?" [Linked to Eastern European web site.]
  2. Actually, some of the funniest protest signs of 2009 would make good spam comment fodder, if you happen to work for a fly-by-night SEO firm.
  3. Blackbaud's Nonprofit Social Media Primer (PDF) was our most popular link of the year, followed closely by the James Irving Foundation's "Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector" (PDF).
  4. The report we did with Idealware on Donor Management Systems proved very popular, as well.
  5. You don't need to be a Bonnie Tyler fan to appreciate the best flowchart of all time. (Second place goes to the U.S. Air Force, in part for differentiating between "Trolls" and "Ragers" in their flow chart on how to respond to blog posts.)
  6. Proof that Roombas work. Also, proof that kittens riding on a Roomba are impossibly cute.
  7. While we're on the subject, you really like videos of cute animals. Is that really what you want from us? Okay, fine, you deserve the break:
  8. We admit that "10 Practical Tips for Facebook Fan Pages" are probably better than 10 impractical tips, but think of the possibilities: "4. Harvest Fans' e-mail addresses by visiting each profile. Add them to your CRM. Message them about updates to your Fan page."
  9. If the New York Times' terrific interactive map of the recession or this spectacularly frightening time-based map of the expansion of Walmart bring you down, cheer up with the most amazing chart we saw this year. (Hand drawn!) Oh, and this one's great, too.
  10. Let's wrap things up with a couple of memes:
    • There's a growing community of humorists working the underbelly of Amazon.com. Sure, this shirt is awesome in and of itself, but check out the reviews. Then, follow the "Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed" section to more hilarity (particularly the gallon of milk).
    • URL Shortener Roulette. When you're faced with something like http://tinyurl.com/34kldn, you don't know where it might take you; you have to trust the source of the link. For added fun, try changing one of the characters. You never know where you'll end up. Often, nowhere -- but every now and again, some place magical: http://tinyurl.com/b4kldn.

THINGS WE LIKE

And the hits keep on coming with this special section of new links to help you finish 2009 off right.
  1. It's Holly's fault, really: she passed on this video of a surprised kitten which simply demanded to be sent out to thousands of overworked nptechies.
  2. Anybody with work experience will be able to identify with this.
  3. Tweeting by thinking: one of Time's 50 Best Inventions of 2009.
  4. Convio's new guide, "Maximize Success with Holiday Giving". It's not too late!
  5. Muppets + "Bohemian Rhapsody" = genius. Expect to see more of this when we kick off our 2010 NTC Scholarship campaign in January.

REGISTER FOR THE NTC

That's right: the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference is going to take place in Hotlanta, April 8-10. You should come.

After all, the NTC is the biggest, most fun-filled NPTech event of the year. Oh, and you'll learn a lot, too: the 2010 breakout sessions are now up on our web site.

Yes, it's perfectly alright to start getting excited. We are.

THE GEORGIA CENTER FOR NONPROFITS

We're happy to welcome local host Georgia Center for Nonprofits to the 2010 NTC.

We've all learned that tech is meaningless without good leadership. This time, GCN members will join us at the NTC, and GCN will bring you the best Leadership Track sessions we've ever had.

Thanks, GCN, and welcome!

WHAT ARE YOUR WEB STATS TELLING YOU?

We all want our web sites to help us raise more money, find volunteers, and serve our clients. But making sense of your web site stats is harder than it looks. NTEN is piloting a new project with the Analysis Exchange to help you unravel those stats and get you recommendations that will make your site perform even better for your cause.

We're looking for a handful of savvy nonprofits to help us test the program. Give us a few hours and a peek under your Google Analytics hood and we'll give you solid analysis, key recommendations, and an NTEN goodie package. We'll choose three organizations by January 15, 2010.

IT STAFFING SURVEY

We need a few more responses before we can close our annual IT Staffing Survey. Do the right thing! If you make technology decisions for your nonprofit, please take the survey. Then pass it on to a colleague. The sooner we gather enough data, the sooner we'll be able to get you the finished report.

It only takes 10-15 minutes. When you're done, check out last year's report to find out if you're being paid enough.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

NTEN CONNECT is the monthly e-newsletter of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).
Flickr Photos: stevesheriw (header) and brendanlim (Atlanta skyline).
Contact the editor at editor@nten.org