Connection Café

Becoming a champion without winning the race – are you a participant or a fundraiser?

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:02:44 -0500

Several years ago, I started an exercise regiment to lose weight. Because I lacked the will-power to get my butt out of bed and run, jump rope, hop on the bike or swim, I signed up for numerous charity runs or rides to incent the behavior. Yet, after each event I found myself wishing I could have done more. I often donated more to the charity after meeting someone at the event who told the mission-story in a way the moved me to do more. Rarely though, did the events ask me to raise more money other than my entry fee – to be honest, even though I have been a professional fundraiser for nonprofits, I’m not sure I would have know where or how to start.

That’s what is so cool about the most recent study that Convio did – they asked some of the best participant fundraisers around for tips that can help people get started and be more successful in using technology and relationships to raise more money. Regardless of where one finishes the run, walk or ride they can be “champions” in the fundraising category. We also created a guide for fundraising and event professionals to help them put all the pieces together.

We took that information and created a tip sheet that provides 12 steps you can take to be more successful – by implementing one, six or all twelve you will not just be event participants you will become fundraisers for the cause. While a couple people might raise $1,000 or $10,000 more, imagine if all the participants at a walk with, say 1,000 people raised $50 or $100 more by implementing 1 or more of the tips – we’re talking a lot of money that can feed the hungry, go to curing cancer, support the local animal or homeless shelter – you name it – your participants, pardon me, your fundraisers can do it.

Having shed nearly 50 pounds the exercise has become a habit – the other thing that is going to become a habit is using these tips to move beyond a participant to becoming a better fundraiser for the cause. I challenge you to download the tip sheet and put it to work as well. I also want you to share your success stories and tips in the comments area below. Millions of people participate in charity fundraising events each year, they could use your advice, your tips and shared techniques to help move other people to donate – so please download the tips and share your passion with our readers.

PS – You can also download the tips, see images, watch video and provide your email to get future tips at www.convio.com/eventchampions

Socially enabling your mission – how nonprofits can benefit from online communities

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:19:21 -0500

Earlier today I presented on an NTEN webinar with Jeff Patrick from Common Knowledge and TJ Muehleman from ThePort on “How to Implement an Online Community That Integrates with your Constituent Management Database”. The webinar covered online community best practices, showcased an in-depth case study on a new community Common Knowledge recently helped launch and how to reach the zen of integration with your online community and your database - i.e. pulling information from one to the other.

It was clear from the webinar that the natural progression of online technology and the best practices has progressed greatly over the past 18-24 months and that the nonprofit community has more opportunity than ever to recruit new supporters, raise more money and empower constituents to take action using social media like online communities.

Jeff Patrick shared some really interesting statistics about online community participation to help provide a high level view of what nonprofits can expect from user participation (note Holly Ross’ conclusion that everything seems to relate back to the Power Law!)

1% of nonprofit community users are super users and contributors
1% create a significant amount of the participation and are evangelists within the community
10-30% only participate at a low level
70% of participants see, read, learn from the community but might never actually interact by writing a blog post or taking other action (caveat: Jeff says to NOT forget or neglect these people, they are still important!)

And TJ Muehleman added a few points about integration that are music to any nonprofit’s ears: the level of integration we are seeing now between community platforms and organizationss databases is better than ever before! Long gone are the days when the two couldn’t talk to each other and information couldn’t be pulled from an online community back into an organization’s systems. And this technology is allowing nonprofits to have truly "socially enabled missions" by empowering their supporters to take action on behalf of their organization like never before - whatever that desired action may be for any given organization.

Below are my slides on best practices for building and managing an online community. As for my top tips for online community management:

1. Set expectations about what you can achieve in the community early
2. Have a strong understanding of why you want a community in the first place
3. Define your success metrics
4. Make it about your constituents and provide the tools and information most important to them
5. Be genuine and show a humanistic side in all community efforts
6. Be participatory and responsive

Best Practices for Managing an Online Community

View more presentations from jordanev.

I'm always looking for new nonprofit success stories and personal best practices, so if you have anything helpful to share with the community share here or on my Slideshare page!

Batwoman for Mayor!

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:54:29 -0500

The New Organizing Institute is in full swing conducting "BootCamp2009", and we're all in for a treat because tomorrow we can vote on the winners!

What is the New Organizing Institute?

From their website: The NOI runs the only progressive advocacy and campaign training program focused on cutting-edge online organizing techniques (e.g. writing effective emails, engaging bloggers, leveraging social networks, utilizing video), political technology (e.g. using data effectively, progressive technology infrastructure), and the intersection with field and management of these areas of new organizing.

What is BootCamp?

This July 4th, NOI will invite 60 bright, diverse graduating college seniors, recent campaign staffers, and career-change professionals to Washington, DC for an intensive week-long, all-expense-paid training. BootCamp will cover everything there is to know about campaigning, new media, online organizing, technology in order to work in the progressive movement. Participants, drawn from a highly competitive pool of applicants, will learn from the top practitioners in their field by day, then apply the lessons learned in the context of a simulated campaign in the evenings.

The group of 60 participants is very impressive indeed, and this year NOI has them working on a simulated mayoral campaign. This year's theme is Superhero Vote! There are 8 teams and each team has a different superhero candidate. There's Cyborg, Superman, The Atom, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Batgirl, and Batwoman in the race. The teams are currently conducting outreach and organizing, and on Friday from 7am - 6pm Eastern time, you can vote on which candidate you'd like to elect. The teams' efforts this week are already paying off with earned media - blogger DCist has already covered the competition. (I love the comment about the candidates being carpetbaggers - I guess DC doesn't have any indigenous superheros.)

Heather Cronk, NOI's training director, said "This year's BootCampers have taken the campaign simulation and training to whole new heights. They're building websites, designing/launching email campaigns, doing blog outreach, targeting voters, creating a GOTV plan, and recruiting/mobilizing volunteers -- in the course of a week. They're the cream of the crop, and progressive politics isn't going to know what hit them when these folks join political and nonprofit campaigns."

With trainings and results like these, it's no wonder that new media and online organizing has vaulted to fill such an important role in political campaigns, as well as a crucial ongoing function for nonprofit organizations. And I'm partial to Batwoman, myself - I like her stance on the issues. But don't let my opinion sway you - check out the candidates' websites, explore their platforms, and vote tomorrow. Good luck to all the candidates!

Socialbrite.org Offers new Site and Resources to Help Nonprofit Community Master Social Tools for Social Change

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:03:17 -0500

Last week marked the launch of the newest resource site and treasure trove for the nonprofit community –Socialbrite.org. I had the pleasure of meeting J.D. Lasica, creator of the site, at this year’s NTC and have been anxiously awaiting the launch since then.

What is Socialbrite.org?

In the words of the site: “Socialbrite is a learning hub & sharing community that brings together top experts in social media, social causes and online philanthropy.” Much like we’ve strived to do with Connection Café, Socialbrite’s mission is to share insights about tools and best practices that “drive the social Web and advance the social good.”

Who can you find adding content on Socialbrite?

Only some of the best and brightest in social media for nonprofits, of course. Contributors to the site (at this point at least) include:

Beth Kanter of Beth's Blog
Amy Sample Ward of Netsquared and Amy Sample Ward's Version of NPTech
Sloane Berrent of the Causemopolitan
J.D. Lasica, founder of Socialmedia.biz, Ourmedia and author of "Darknet"
John Haydon of johnhaydon.com
Katrin Verclas, co-founder of Mobileactive.org
Ken Banks of kiwanja.net
Carla Schlemminger.

Just a few of the highlights on the site

A directory of Web 2.0 Productivity Tools in dozens of categories that can help organizations get a handle on the social Web.
A Social Media Glossary that offers a deep, friendly introduction to dozens of social media terms in plain English.
A first-of-its-kind Twitter widget that tracks tweets about nonprofits or social causes in real time.
A Free Photos Directory, Free Video Directory and Free Music Directory that offers nonprofits, cause organizations and Web publishers a guide to hundreds of online resources for adding legal, high-quality content to their own websites, blogs, newsletters, printed materials or online presentations.
A Causes widget that points to charitable actions and donations on other sites such as Global Giving and Facebook Causes.
Scores of additional articles, guides and tutorials to help newcomers and veterans alike get better acquainted with this fast-moving space.

True to its online description, Socialbrite.org seems to be helping fill a gap in the social media world – providing a centralized site to find various elements of information on interactive and social media.

Props to J.D. Lasica and team on such a great launch – can’t wait to see what you gals and guys have in store for all of us!

It's That Time Again

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:43:58 -0500

It's Mid-Year Review time. This means dusting off the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and evaluating how far I've come, what I've accomplished and what goals I may have missed. It's not always easy to do this. How honest can I be with myself? Can I admit that I didn't hit some of my goals? Even harder, can I accept and celebrate my accomplishments?

The point of a Review is not to point out mistakes. It's not even meant to be the torturous process that some people make it out to be. It's meant to be a roadmap and provide guidance. It's important not only for individuals to do this, but also organizations. Especially in regards to an organization's website.

Some people get into the trap of thinking that a website is static. There is a misleading and severely out-dated notion still floating around out there that proclaims that once a website is built, that's it. If you want to increase site traffic, raise more money, increase your housefile and improve the user experience of your website though, you will have to accept change. Part of accepting change is taking time to review the goals you've set out for your website. It could be bi-annually, it could be quarterly, or it could even be monthly. It's completely up to you. As long as there is some time set aside to re-evaluate where you're going.

Doing this does not mean that every time you review your site you'll need to make drastic changes. On the contrary, it can help reduce drastic changes (which can be costly, time-consuming and very frustrating) since regular maintenance and revision can help weed out problems and issues. It can also help you decide what's worth keeping and what should be eliminated. Some web content requires a bit of time before you can truly evaluate its impact or relevance.

This also does not mean you should beat yourself up every time you fail to meet your goals. Inevitably you will fail to meet some of them. Sometimes all of them. Accept that and use the opportunity and energy to move towards what you do want to see in the future.

Here are just a few questions you might ask yourself when evaluating your website:

What were the original goals that were set out for the website? Are they still relevant?
Who are my users, what are their current practices and what are their needs? (Why are they visiting my website?)
Do I have good quality content that is succinct and interesting to my users? If the answer is no or maybe or you're not sure, check out these articles from A List Apart, Writing Content that Works for a Living and Content Templates to the Rescue, about generating top quality content. Because it is more important than you might think!
What has been successful for the site? What hasn't?
Where do I see the site in a year? In two years?

I can't guarantee that evaluating where you are and how far you've come will be painless. Facing my own Mid-Year Review will force me to ask some tough questions of myself. But therein lies the opportunity.

Many organizations already have some type of review process in place. If that is the case for you, what kinds of questions do you ask yourselves? How does reviewing your website and your goals help you?