Source: npENGAGE

This week, I am excited to announce that my first two articles were posted on npENGAGE, Blackbaud’s official blog website. Under the About section of the site, “npENGAGE is the premier nonprofit resource for trends, best practices, and need-to-know news.” This is a significant milestone for me as I have sought to have some of my thoughts posted in articles there for some time. It wasn’t until an invitation was extended to me from some colleagues that I work with at Blackbaud that my contributions found their way onto that site.

Getting an article posted on npENGAGE signals that I am recognized as a thought leader on the topics I post about. This means a great deal to me and I hope you find my contributions on that site of value as well.

My first two articles are related to nonprofit advocacy. The first article is overcoming the myth that nonprofits who have 501(c)(3) status cannot engage in advocacy and/or lobbying. This is untrue and quite the opposite.

My second article discusses how to get started in advocacy and how to seek out meaningful measurement. If you’re a follower of my thoughts here at WillHull.com on Williteration, you already know that I am a fan of performance measurement and seeking more than quanitative measurement, but also, a blend of qualitative as well as quantitative measurement in seeking outcome indicators that contribute to the outcome we are seeking when engaging in performance measurement.That being said, this article tackles the issue of how to measure nonprofit advocacy activities when each metric does not ultimately yield desired outcomes when not only human activity involved, such as who is taking action by communicating with their decision maker (e.g. a Congressional Representative or Senator), but also when building coalitions with many other organizations who pool resources with yours to seek the societal change or policy result that will benefit all parties involved.

I hope you can take a moment and view these articles at npENGAGE. To view any new articles posted, please take a look at my author page and find what else I have contributed since becoming an author on npENGAGE.

Disclaimer

I am employed by Blackbaud. The article above, does not reflect the views of the organization that I work for nor the views of any of my clients. All content is my own, and all thoughts are my own. This is not the official view of my organization nor do I intend it to be. Any attempt to attribute anything herein as official by Blackbaud, its staff or clients is unauthorized and inappropriate use of this article’s content.

The post View my articles on npENGAGE as a contributor appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Source: everydayhero

everydayhero acts as a headquarters for you to manage (and share) your “do-gooding”. Every effort. Every hour spent volunteering. Every person you recruit to join you in your effort to support your cause is tracked using everydayhero.

You may note that I wrote about FirstGiving a while ago that enables the individual to set up and execute their own personal fundraising event. It is true that FirstGiving enables personalized fundraising. It is true that FirstGiving and other existing online crowd-funding platforms like it that target the consumer-market have helped make online giving more accessible to individual fundraisers; however, everydayhero transcends these platforms by providing a holistic experience that not only enables fundraising, but also tracks and presents all that activity that goes into supporting those causes, offering a superior experience for the cause supporter, like you.

So, how does it work?

Source: everydayhero

everydayhero provides a Giving Footprint™ that is a window into your entire giving life, “providing a unique visual quantification of [your] giving that goes beyond money and includes [your] effort, voice and collective impact,” – Market Watch and Market Wired. everydayhero integrates with tools that you use in your everyday life to quantify every effort that goes into supporting your cause. Information is gathered from Facebook, Twitter, Volunteer Match and MapMyFitness to create a snapshot for each individual, which grows over time.

You, the supporter, initiate supporting your cause (note not just a charity in mind) by signing up at everydayhero. Then, you set up goals, email friends/family about your everydayhero activity, raise money for organizations that have a similar mission to the cause you support, volunteer in support of your cause; get fit, walk, run, host a neighborhood barbecue fundraiser, seek to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, go skydiving… the sky is the limit and the choice is yours. You’ll find that integrating everydayhero into your support of a cause “boosts [your] energy, drive and commitment to make a difference in the world!”

everydayhero | Support the causes you love, see all that you give.

What percentage of funding reaches the organizations in support of your cause?

There is a small 5% service fee on donations, plus a 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction processing fee is charged whenever a transaction takes place. That leaves over 90% reaching organizations in support of your cause.

How is this different from supporting a walk/run/event hosted by a charity?

The difference is that it is personal. It is your choice what you do to support your cause of choice. You don’t need permission from a charity to host an event in support of your cause. You don’t need to adhere to brand standards of a given charity. You do what you want to do to raise money for your cause of choice? You have the best of intentions in mind, right? So why let those things stop you in support of your cause. Maybe you’re not a runner or not into physical activity to participate in an event such as a 5K, half or full marathon? Maybe you’re not into a Saturday event once/year? Maybe you want to exploit your personal skills and talents to deliver the most good possible to achieve the goals of your cause? Whether those skills be video games, playing tag, hosting a bake sale, or even running a blog like this one. With everydayhero, you can do what you want to do to raise awareness/funds/support to support your cause. And that is not all…

So who’s with me?

everydayhero connects you with others serving your cause of choice all around the world. In fact, everydayhero was originally established in places like Australia and New Zealand, to the United Kingdom and Singapore, and due to its success, it was recently introduced in the United States by Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), providers of software to nonprofits and NGOs to help achieve charitable missions and fund causes around the world.

So, are you committed?

Make a difference. Serve a cause. Use everydayhero as your tool to make it happen.

» Visit everydayhero today! «

Disclaimer

I am employed by Blackbaud. The article above, does not reflect the views of the organization that I work for nor the views of any of my clients. All content is my own, and all thoughts are my own. This is not the official view of my organization nor do I intend it to be. Any attempt to attribute anything herein as official by Blackbaud, its staff or clients is unauthorized and inappropriate use of this article’s content.

The post Fundraise and support the causes you love, all while doing it your way with everydayhero appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Recently, I came across an article written by Geoff Livingston entitled, “The Vanity of New Metrics” where he discusses the idea of measuring everything in our lives to “giv[e] us the chance to optimize our lifestyle… Performance will become a mantra for some more competitive and vain people.” He goes on to discuss the possible “societal impact” that constant measurement of what seems like the mundane will render as being increasingly tied to “self image” in a direction that is “[t]ouching and changing people’s lives or breaking records in arcane communities that relish niche statistics.” He further directly asks rhetorically, “What will we write on our gravestones in 50 years, a top ranked blogger who achieved a 16.7% lifetime share rate, or writer?”

It seems that “Big Data” is getting more and more traction within the nonprofit community. “Big Data is a reference to the vast volumes of data being created by consumer behavior. This data is captured, aggregated and analyzed to produce more effective marketing solutions.” writes the Grizzard Communications Group. In fact, the topic of big data is happeing in places like here, here, here, and here just to identify a few.

Big data is culling large amounts of “consumer” data. We’re talking behavior patterns, like checking in on Foursquare at a location, what brand of butter one buys at a grocery store or even what kind of car one drives. Its relevance to the nonprofit sector could potentially yield exponential rewards. However, too much data and one is left frozen on how to glean meaning from the mounds of data one has sitting before them to analyze.

Nonprofits, in general, not all, but most, have yet to master the ability to analyze the data that they already have on their hands. Data like donor history, email subscription segmentation and biological demographics. One blog frankly declares,

“Nonprofits are not exploring the possibilities of their own data already available. This ‘low hanging fruit’ presents a huge opportunity for nonprofits right now… I do think nonprofits should acknowledge the trend to collect more data. We should be evaluating it, and testing its potential to create more relevant communications and donor-focused strategies.”

Focus, focus, focus

We should be focusing on what data we already have such as:

• Donor history
• Supporter interests like if they are interested in becoming a volunteer or getting involved in organizing fundraising events.
• If they live in a certain zip code radius to be able to attend donor events
• If they own a home
• What level of education they have completed
• What is their relationship to your organization
  • If they were served by your organization in the past
  • If a relative was served by your organization in the past
  • If they know/knew someone who was served by your organization in the past

These things are readily available and can help you to determine:

• How stable the individual supporter is financially
• How committed a supporter is to their community and/or stable they are against moving away from the geographical area
• How committed they are to working to accomplish your organizational mission
• What their likes and/or dislikes are
• How far up the ladder of engagement they are with your organization; you wouldn’t ask an annual $500 donor to give $5 via email would you?

As is typical with many nonprofit organizations, they are hierarchically flat organizations. This means that someone in the field and/or considered line staff or someone who is entry level is likely two to three levels below the CEO when it comes to who is supervising who. That means that there isn’t a lot of movement/promotions and what is relevant to our discussion here, there aren’t a lot of extra hands to sit down and digest data like there is no tomorrow. There is limited time, bandwidth and manpower when it comes to working at a nonprofit in most cases.

That being said, nonprofit professionals need to focus their search for data and time analyzing it. They need to focus on what they want their outcome to be and not solely on outputs. You might ask yourself, is there a difference between the two? Absolutely, yes there is and I wrote about it here, if you would like to learn more.

Start with the end outcome in mind

Instead of focusing on how many people opened or how many clickthroughs came from an email or how much was donated as a result of an email/direct mail piece or even how many people showed up to an event, you might want to ask a bigger question; what is all of this activity doing to contribute to my desired outcome? What are my outcome indicators (those measurements that add up to achieving your outcome) that I can measure? These measures could be quantitative (what a CEO or Development Director might prefer) or qualitative. Quantitative meaning easily measured where you can count the measure. Qualitative meaning something that is experiential or less easy to quantify (such as was someone completely satisfied as a result of your action/event/email)? What qualifies as someone’s complete satisfaction for one person may not measure up for another. So it is a gray area of measurement. Sometimes these forms of measurement, qualitative, take the form of stories or case studies that result from the action taken with a person. It is their version of how the result affected them personally. Not everyone’s story will be the same.

The point I am trying to drive home here is that there is data already there for you, the nonprofit professional. Perhaps too much data. You just need to identify what you want your end outcome to be and come up with measures that will add up to that result. Is seeking as much money as possible a valid measurement or is reaching a campaign goal to buy new office space an outcome to aspire to?

Work to master your own data, add more measures as soon as you are comfortable measuring what you are measuring now from your own data such as A/B testing email subject lines or the length of a given direct mail or email communication before jumping to seek out “big data” that you can purchase from data conglomerates who specialize in aggregating data for anyone willing to pay for it.

Pursuing “big data” will come with time, but for now, question what you are measuring at the moment and ask yourself, “Is this activity contributing to my end outcome or am I just measuring to measure to produce a number so the higher ups will be pleased that things are growing?”

What is growth if it is not quality growth?

Are your lists getting bigger but your open rates are dropping off? Are those who you are communicating with willing to become an evangelical for your cause if you asked them to do so? Would they do anything you ask them to do in the name of your mission or are they just a number that adds up to a total? Meaningful, quality data is so much more powerful when it comes to driving relevant content and successful campaigns than just having a list to send a message to. As a nonprofit professional, you need to know your list. Know your supporters. Know your donors.

Who are you and why are you talking to me?

How well do you know your supporters, volunteers and donors? Building a relationship and getting to know them as well as you would know a husband/wife/partner/family member is the key to success when it comes to the success of raising money as well as generating success toward achieving your mission.

The post The nonprofit buzz word for 2014, Big Data appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Today, I came across an article that I find worth sharing here at WillHull.com. Over at Unbounce I found an article that dissects 10 nonprofit home pages and/or landing pages. Entitled, 10 Landing Page Examples For the Social Good” this article goes in-depth into really looking at the colors, content and placement of many things that are found on a given webpage. This article claims that many of the pages that they reviewed “are in serious need of some optimization” and “the sad truth is, a lot of these organizations seem to be running landing pages that fall flat.”

When looking at a webpage, visitors often give as little as 8 seconds (also discussed here) to review the page before moving on to another. That being said, we often overlook what we want the visitor to do in exchange for our own emotionally-laden decision to place more and more content onto each and every page, especially the homepage of a site as nonprofit professionals. We have to ask ourselves, what do we want as the outcome of a visitor seeing a given webpage? As much as we like to use the newest and latest technology on our homepage design, sometimes, less is more and “purpose trumps pretty“. “Focus people on what you want them to do, and you’ll get better conversions as a result,” writes Sloan.

All too often, we are measuring outputs rather than outcomes. Outputs are similar to tallies on a chalk board or widgets off of an assembly line. What does counting them do for you? Nothing. However, if you see that they add up to an end result such as these widgets alleviated (x)% of the market need, then you are measuring an “outcome indicator”. Outcomes are the end result we are looking for. If something you are measuring does not contribute to the end result you are looking for, why measure it? We aren’t measuring visitor “hits” to a page just for the sake of hits. We aren’t seeking converstions in the form of donations (in the nonprofit world this is what we would like to focus on often times) but rather what those donation dollars do to impact your mission. We should be seeking a way to measure the end result we are looking for – in the end we want to accomplish the mission of our respective organizations. As such, we need to focus on landing page optimization.

What does your homepage do to accomplish your outcome of a given campaign or mission? You have 8 seconds for the elevator pitch to make or break your relationship with a given supporter. What should you say without being overwhelming?

To optimize a landing page, because let’s face it, your homepage is, in itself, a landing page, you need to play on the KISS principle. “Keep it simple, Sally” (although some like to replace the last word of that phrase with some other language that starts with the letter “s”). How many moving elements are on your homepage? How many colors? How much text? “Tell me where I am and why I should care.” and further “tell me why I should be here, and what I can do” writes Sloan. Think about what “present[s] an opportunity for the visitor to get distracted” and remove it. For example, if you are on a donation page, does it have navigation links or footer links? Are they really necessary or do they distract from what the purpose of the page is?

Calls to action

Source:
Eric Sloan,
Unbounce

You need to focus on one call to action on your landing page. You shouldn’t dilute your call to action by presenting more than one opportunity on each page. If you want your visitor to donate, then focus on that and only that. If you want your visitor to sign up for an e-mail update (this could also be phrased as an e-newsletter subscription) then focus on that alone. Keep the call to action “above the fold” meaning before anyone has to scroll down to find it. It should be located at or near the top of the page and easily seen by a catchy headline. Also, if possible, “[g]et the contact information first so you can market to these leads if they do not complete the billing page.” says Sloan. Ways to enhance the call to action might be statistics such as (x)% of every dollar goes to our program focus or (x) million children are starving and each dollar you provide helps feed (x) children; etc. Try to give feedback on what you want the visitor to do and why you want them to do it so urgently.

Sloan goes on in this article by writing, “[i]f you want more conversions you have to make the path to signing up very easy.” I couldn’t have said this better myself. You need to remove as many obstacles as possble to getting the person to hit the, in most cases, “submit” button; although Sloan argues that the use of the word “submit” on a button makes his “blood boil” and he offers a few alternatives. How many fields are on your form asking for an email address? If more than two, you could be jeopardizing the conversion from potential supporter to subscriber. First name and email address will do just fine. The point is to encourage your supporter to commit to sharing information with you without making them feel like they are giving you their Social Security number or credit card information with their PIN numbers.

Just like a first date, you want to assure the other person that you are not taking advantage of their goodwill because they gave you their information. You want to slowly build a relationship with this person. After a person has completed the first name/email address form, you may as a pathway direct them to another form where the first name and email address is already filled out while offering them the opportunity to provide you with more information about them. Perhaps, after they have donated you can direct them to a place they can sign a petition or take an action to write a legislative decision maker. Further, and another way to build trust through communications is to introduce your new supporter through the use of a “Welcome Series” using incremental messaging to slowly introduce your support to how your organization functions, its mission and things that a supporter can do to take action in support of your organization (for example, maybe providing some free printable downloads that they can post in their place of work, school, church or bulletin board to help spread the word about your organization). These options are all possible. However, during your first engagement, you want to keep it as easy to fill out a form as possible. Remove all things competing on your page to keep the visitor from completing that form.

One thing is for certain, landing pages could make all of the difference for your organization. Whether it is your homepage of your organization’s website, a link to a donation page from an email, an advocacy action alert, you need to use the KISS principle in all things that you do with your web marketing medium. Focus on what you want the visitor to do and ask yourself what that action will do to help you achieve your mission.

Does your favorite nonprofit website homepage or donation page meet this criteria or does it distract from its purpose and intent? Leave me a comment, I’d love to hear your feedback.

The post Rethinking the nonprofit landing page appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Source: RoboForm

Today, I would like to share my thoughts on a tool that has proved invaluable to both my time and memory called RoboForm. Have you ever sat, staring at a keyboard trying to cull your memory for any remnants of what a potential password can be? Perhaps, every time you try to type your password with special characters, lowercase, uppercase and numbers, you find yourself missing one or missing the Shift key? Maybe it is trying to come up with something complex, will all of those characters mentioned above without forgetting it? Have no fear, RoboForm can do all of these things and more.

I personally use RoboForm everyday to not only remember my passwords but to generate complex passwords that are very difficult to remember as well. This simplifies life by eliminating the need to write down each password and store them in a drawer to easily get lost someday; adding to my overall organization on and off the job.

Source: RoboForm

I personally use RoboForm2Go. It is the version of RoboForm that you can install on a USB drive or external hard drive and bring with you wherever you go and onto whatever computer you end up using throughout the day.

RoboForm is password protected by a master password to access all of your other passwords, so all you need to remember is one password.

Between my personal and professional password protected accounts, I have hundreds of passwords stored in my RoboForm program.

Source:
RoboForm2Go Program

Here’s how it works. I can easily double-click on the account I wish to access in the RoboForm window or through a toolbar in my browser and due to the configuration of internet browser preference, it opens up my browser or a new window in my browser if it is already open and inputs the password for me — with only a double-click of a mouse! No typing! Further, if I need a new password combination, I can click on my browser toolbar and have it generate any length, character type, upper or lowercase text with numerical inputs, etc.

Keeping track of passwords you need to change is a snap too! All you need to do is click on the edit icon of the password you intend to change and then generate your password, copy it to your clipboard, change the password and then paste it into your RoboForm program and then hit the save button. It’s almost too easy.

In short, it really makes life a simple for me to keep track of all of my passwords in a secure password protected location.

I would highly recommend it for any professional on the go or one who needs help managing all of their passwords on a daily basis. Try it out, you’ll see, it is amazing. I know that’s how I feel about it, at least.

Do you use RoboForm? What do you think? Does it save you both time and energy each day?

RoboForm for the desktop is priced today at a one-time $30 or you can pay an annual subscription for the “Everywhere” product to log into a website to retrieve your passwords at $10 the first year and $20/year every year afterwards. RoboForm2Go priced at a one-time price of $40.

Source: RoboForm.com

Disclaimer: I was in no was in no way influenced to write on this topic by either RoboForm or the company I work for. The opinion above is mine and mine alone. Any attempt to attribute these thoughts to any other party other than myself, is a misrepresentation of what I have written above and should be disregarded immediately.

The post Remembering Passwords Made Easy with RoboForm appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

The new website, located at http://nvalpha.org/, is housed on a WordPress platform and utilizes a them found from http://themeforest.net and several plugins from http://codecanyon.net/.

The website took about three days to set up and it will enable SigEp alumni to be able to:

1. Submit an article for submission as news about yourself or a fellow alumnus.
2. Submit images of you or a fellow alumnus for things such as
1. Alumni events
2. Family celebrations (weddings, a birth in your family, etc.)
3. Life accomplishments (purchase of a new home, a new job/career, post-graduate degree, etc.)
4. Just you with some fellow alumni at a casual get together
5. Etc.
3. Submit information about your business for networking purposes in the Alumni Helping Alumni section of the site
1. Discounts at your place of business or for a product your business provides
4. A place to register as a user to share your contact information with the rest of the alumni base (what you display to the public is at your discretion, all else will be displayed behind a login only visible to other users who are logged in)
5. A place to update your contact information
6. A place to see who is on AVC and a way to contact the AVC
7. A place to highlight volunteers and those who have made donations in excess of $100 or its equivalent in materials to the NV Alpha AVC and Undergraduate chapter for the calendar year
8. A place to view recent images of alumni events or images in general as a gallery
9. A place to make donations to the AVC to support the undergraduate chapter and alumni events (e.g. the fund to purchase the house at 401 University Terrace and the fund for the in-house scholarship or just to make a general donation)
10. An events calendar and place to showcase upcoming major events
11. A link to the undergrad chapter website

This is just a brief overview of the site and its capabilities. We, as alumni that are a part of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Nevada Alpha Alumni & Volunteer Corporation, can always add onto the site with such modules as adding a forum, if there is a need for it in the future or perhaps a full-on business directory of where everyone works to share with the alumni base.

Further, this site is based on a “responsive” design which means that the site is both mobile and tablet browser-friendly. How it works is there is specific coding in the CSS stylesheet to produce a different look and feel when difference screen resolutions are present. You can symbolize the effect by holding your Control key on your keyboard and using the scroll wheel on your mouse, you can scroll up to decrease the screen resolution; essentially increasing the size of things on your screen. You can return it to normal by hitting CTRL + 0 and it will return it to your normal browsing resolution.

I am very pleased with the turnout of this site and just wanted to share my results with you here on WillHull.com.  Even though I didn’t design this site from scratch; using a blank Adobe Photoshop document and hand coding, it did take some skill with aesthetics and code to modify the theme to suit the needs of our organization.  It is my hope that this professional presence will attract new volunteers as well as donations to support the undergraduate chapter in both the form of scholarships as well as purchasing the house that the chapter is currently renting.

So what do you think?  Will this serve the needs of the alumni base of this Sigma Phi Epsilon Nevada Alpha chapter?

The post Latest project: Sigma Phi Epsilon Nevada Alpha Alumni and Volunteer Corporation website appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

I saw a lot of chatter on the Progressive Exchange Listserve (hosted by M+R Strategic Services) in recent days about the use of advocacy and email marketing tools to communicate with supporters and the electorate. Many of these tools include Yesmail, Blackbaud, Convio (A Blackbaud company), Blue State Digital, Salsa Labs (Salsa) / Democracy in Action (DIA), Action Kit, even Constant Contact. This all came about because the CEO, Chris Lundberg, of Salsa/DIA was ousted by his Board of Directors. Traditionally, Salsa has always served the progressive cause. However, with the infusion of $5 million in venture capital last year from Edison Ventures, the integrity of the organization and the direction that the CEO wanted to pursue was admittedly compromised as a “nail in [their] coffin.” According to Salsa co-founder April Pedersen,

“When we took venture capital last year, we outlined a grand vision — one that we continue to believe strongly in: that Salsa is capable of perpetuating the notion of Organizing very broadly — beyond the sectors that we currently operate in and especially internationally. We can continue to lower the barriers to entry, continue to build a profitable business and be a force for good. The infusion of cash was supposed to help us realize our vision faster than we could before.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, taking those funds which we did not need was the $5M nail in our coffin. We deeply regret this decision and our naiveté in making it. While Chris and I are still majority owners of Salsa, we’ve been effectively hamstrung. With no leadership (and no formal role offered to me), there’s little we can do. The questions we are left pondering are: How long before Salsa takes on its first right-wing candidate or group? How long before the litmus test we’ve used to evaluate potential clients disappears? Will Libre, our vision and goal to make Salsa free, see the light of day? What happens when Salsa loses its soul and all the technical and institutional knowledge that has come with 9 years of pouring ourselves into the success of this business?” (Source: CampaignsAndElections.com)

This brings a question to mind, do the tools that we use to communicate with our supporters need to reflect the partisanship of our respective missions? Does the playing field need to be fair in the use of one tool over another? This was something that was brought up in the presidential debate in another form just this week.

Governor Romney and President Obama both spoke to this fact when discussing the role China will play in the future of the United States. In the protection of patents and copyrights as well as intellectual property, it is well known and a matter of fact that the Chinese openly ignore these instruments when seeking profits. Should we level the playing field with China? I think so. However, this issue is what this election will be about in the coming weeks; well that in many other issues.

When it comes the tools that we use to communicate, some feel that partisanship is a strong issue for them and if the tool that they use is also sold to the competition, it is the equivalent of “selling out” to the highest bidder. When one has a tool the competition does not have, does that make it fair? Does it matter who uses the tool? I think not.

It is the content that we create and the missions we advocate that matter, not the tools. If our missions are strong enough to exact change in society, then why worry about the tools that we use to reach the end outcome. In using another metaphor, on the playing field in sports, who wins the game is the result of the better team and objective officiating. Cheating is not allowed. So why should we fight to keep a tool to ourselves?

If you represent the better side, fight for it through your words and actions. Demonstrate that your cause is the better one and do so through ethical means. Don’t squabble over the tools that you use. Simple enough, right?

What do you think? Should each side have their own tool that caters just to their political leanings? You already know how I feel about this. Let’s hear what you think.

Disclaimer: I work for a company called Blackbaud. What is written above, does not reflect the views of the organization that I work for nor the views of any of my clients. All content is my own, and all thoughts are my own. This is not the official view of my organization nor do I intend it to be. I am just expressing my personal views.

Works Cited

1. D’Aprile, S. (2012, October 19). CEO out at Salsa Labs. Retrieved October 24, 2012, from Campaigns & Elections: http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/332507/ceo-out-at-salsa-labs.thtml
2. Judd, N. (2012, October 19). After CEO Ousted at Salsa Labs, Some Ask: Will It Stay “Progressive?”. Retrieved October 24, 2012, from TechPresident: http://techpresident.com/news/23022/after-ceo-ousted-salsa-labs-some-ask-will-it-stay-progressive

The post Advocacy and Email Marketing: Should the Tool’s Politics Matter? appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Located at WindyPinwheel.com, this new website is a resource for parents in northern Nevada and the Sierras sharing activities suitable for families that are fun, educational, and most importantly cost effective. We already have a few posts up that cover topics from Lake Tahoe, local parks, Reno Aces baseball and the Great Reno Balloon Race.

With this site, we will post reviews, articles, and host a calendar of events of things happening in northern Nevada and the Sierra California region that families of all ages can attend.

We hope to monetize the site through the use of advertisement “ad zones” using the OIO Publisher plug-in. We have three spots available for ads and it’s integrated with PayPal and 2checkout payment options. In the future, we hope to have an option for paid reviews as well.

I have had a lot of fun so far, working on this project. I hope you can stop by and check it out. Please be sure to leave some comments, as were looking forward to interaction on the site as well.

Thanks for stopping by.

The post New Website Project: Windy Pinwheel appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

A lot has happened since the last time that I wrote. Every day I get new clients. My unscheduled hours throughout the day are getting fewer and fewer. Each new client that I am assigned to, presents a new opportunity for me to learn something new. All that I can say is that I love my job.

Friends Asking Friends is an amazing tool for fundraising through events online. Every day I’m learning something new. I am now performing design work for Friends Asking Friends Starter packages.

Blackbaud is a great fit. I love what I do. The work that I perform is for the right reasons. And I’m helping to achieve some good in the world by helping nonprofits achieve their missions. I have finally found a job and position that I’m truly happy in. I couldn’t ask for more.

I will try to write more as the days go on about my experience and perhaps other issues that are of relevance to the nonprofit and public sectors. But for now, I’m getting adjusted to my new position with Blackbaud. Let’s see what the future holds.

The post Three Months on the Job at Blackbaud and Still Loving What I Do appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Sphere is a SaaS (Software as a Service) product based in the cloud. It has everything from online fundraising through events, auctions, and eCommerce, to e-mail marketing, donor prospecting, an online advocacy action center, a fully integrated content management system (CMS), and just about everything you’ll need to engage a supporter of a nonprofit organization.

My job is to help nonprofit clients implement Sphere in their everyday operations. I sit on phone calls and interact with the nonprofit client to gather assets and train them on the Sphere product every day. I feel like my impact is exponentially greater than focusing on one nonprofit mission alone; just knowing that I am helping nonprofits achieve their own respective missions gives me a personal sense of fulfillment that a profit-driven bottom line never will.

Blackbaud is really like a family. Everyone looks out for each other and strives to help each other out. My team has really gone out of their way to help me get up to speed on the product and my job responsibilities. I am truly grateful for their assistance.

My next step is actually performing consulting activities for the Sphere platform. These activities start this week. Wish me luck.

Let the adventure begin…

The post Working with Blackbaud appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Last Friday, March 2, 2012, the representative who initially contacted me offered me the position. I start on April 2, 2012 in Charleston, SC for two weeks for training and then I telecommute from Reno, Nevada. I feel as though I have groomed myself, unknowingly, for this position since 2006 starting at DCS Serivces and quite possibly earlier with my customer service experience I gained at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

The job description for the position I will be filling with Blackbaud is below:

Needless to say, I am very excited that I am fortunate enough to continue working in the nonprofit field, following my passion in serving many nonprofit organizations as clients on behalf of Blackbaud. So, I guess you can say, in short that the purpose of the existence of this website has rendered itself fulfilled by helping me market my experience to the world and to find gainful and meaningful employment.

The adventure is just beginning…

The post The Purpose of this Website… Fulfilled appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Putting my finger on what is different is something that I have been working on since I arrived here more than a week ago. Now, rather than attempting to go out and socialize, I find myself with parental responsibilities and scheduling time with friends. It used to be a quick call and my friends and I could meet up anywhere for any reason. Now, it is just to catch up and see one another with all that happens in between.

As with all things, change happens and we can either embrace it or reject and fight against the current. Although it is awkward at first, this change is a good thing. My wife and I can expose our children to all the things that made growing up here so great; Apple Hill in Placerville, CA, snow sports, all of the events over the summer, such as Hot August Nights, Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off, Lake Tahoe, Virginia City, etc. There are so many things here that we can see and do that life really just got better for my family and I. The housing market is at a prime period for a first-time home buyer as well.

Opportunities abound for our family and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store, both professionally as well as personally.

The post The Return of a Nevada Native appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

As such, I am excited to announce that we’re returning home, where my wife and I were raised to undergo another great adventure and I am extremely happy for her.

However, my job search in that area is now just beginning. I am still seeking front-end Web development work in that area, but as I know already, the area is not robust in these kinds of positions. Nor are the nonprofit and public sector positions plentiful.

I admit that it may be a challenge to find fulfilling employment in this area, but I would not have it any other way. I am excited that I am in a position to potentially give back to the community where I was raised in a greater way than I ever could before I left the area in June 2005.

I am now armed with the toolkit that will assist me in succeeding in the Truckee Meadows.

If you’re reading this and you are in the position to or know of someone who is looking to fill a position that requires a Masters in Public Administration or a Front-End Web Developer, please drop me a line, I am open to all possibilities if they are located in the Reno/Sparks area or if a position can work remotely by telecommuting.

Until next time… let the adventure begin.

The post Homeward Bound appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

Play Ball Sports Portfolio
WordPress Theme

Happy holidays, everyone. I hope this article finds you in good health and high spirits.

Today, I would like to offer my services as a freelance Front End Web Developer for anyone who would like to build their own custom WordPress theme. My rates are on a project-to-project basis. Some sites are simple and involve little custom coding and others are more intricate and elaborate and thus the rate may change depending on the expertise required to complete the project. I can tell you however, that my rates can include a flat website rate or they can be an hourly rate (useful if you just want a design mocked up in Photoshop and coded in XHTML, CSS or PHP for WordPress installation and you handle the customizing once the theme is installed). I am flexible when it comes to how you want to handle your project.

If you are seeking to build a custom WordPress theme or portfolio website, I would like to invite you to take a look at my portfolio page and get a sense of my design aesthetic by selecting any of the icons on the left. Please contact me when you are ready.

Custom WordPress themes will eventually be one of my offerings on a new e-commerce site I intend to build in the near future where I will showcase current WordPress designs I have for sale.

Currently, I have my first WordPress theme for sale here at WillHull.com for $30, the Play Ball Sports Portfolio WordPress Theme. If you are interested in purchasing the Play Ball Sports Portfolio WordPress theme, please contact me and I will provide you information on how to proceed with the transaction.

So, how about it? Are you in the market for a custom design or redesign of your WordPress site? Please drop me a line. I would love to hear from you.

The post Are you in the market for a custom WordPress theme? appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.

This theme uses the 960 Grid System, customizable drop-down navigation menus, CSS navigation/hover sprites, embedded header fonts, a 100% widget optimized sidebar and the ability to host adverstisements as a widget in the sidebar. It is perfect for the sports enthusiast, sports writer, sports journalist, sports blogger, anyone who follows baseball, football, golf, soccer, tennis or even cricket. Just about any outdoor sporting event, really. It was created with the sports fan in mind.

Below is a thumbnail of this template:

Preview the Live Demo
Screenshot

If you are interested in purchasing this template, my first of what I am sure are many more to come, it is $30 payable via Paypal (at least while I am designing a few others and until I can get an eCommerce site set up to house them).

This WordPress theme includes:

1. Layered Photoshop Document (PSD)
2. Screenshots of the site similar to the ones above
3. Theme in HTML/CSS (prior to conversion to WordPress PHP; also template for sidebar advertising location)
4. .zip file for uploading to WordPress to install the Play Ball Sports Portfolio WordPress theme
5. All Javascript files (Mootools, jQuery, etc.) for slideshow window
6. Documentation of the files (readme.txt and HTML page documentation as a .zip file)
7. GPL (General Public License) and license for the theme for use on one website only (if you would like to license this theme for multiple sites, please contact me for details)

If you would also like custom coding for this WordPress theme, such as adding your logo (in the header and footer), configuring your Flickr photostream in the footer and AddThis or ShareThis social media sharing links, we can discuss my hourly rate offline as well. Please contact me at any time, if you are intersted in purcasing this WordPress theme template.

What are your thoughts on this theme? I would love to hear them.

Thanks for stopping by.

The post Play Ball Sports Portolio WordPress Theme (For Sale) appeared first on Williteration | Will Hull, MPA.