Emily's World

Gardens on Pinterest

2013-04-19T17:03:00.003-04:00

April is National Garden Month. Since gardens are visual, I was curious to see how gardens were using Pinterest to show photos of their gardens. Listed below are links to Pinterest pages for gardens that I think are great examples.

Atlanta Botanical Garden

Chicago Botanic Garden

Desert Botanical Garden

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Longwood Gardens

Missouri Botanical Garden

Naples Botanical Garden

New York Botanical Garden

Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden

Powell Gardens

What boards are gardens creating and pinning/repinning to?

Colors
Birds
Butterflies
Insects
Wildlife
What's in Bloom
Crafts and Art
Books
Weddings
Special Events
Types of Flowers
Pins from Visitors

I took the picture above at the Butterfly Garden at Brookside Gardens in 2010

2013 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

2013-04-10T14:09:00.000-04:00

NTEN and M+R Strategic Services recently released their annual eNonprofit Benchmarks Study. Here are some of the findings:

The two sectors with e-mail list growth in 2012 were Health and Wildlife & Animal Welfare. Health has gone up since 2010 by about 10% in each year. (10% in 2010, 20% in 2011, and 31% in 2012) Wildlife & Animal Welfare went up by 27% in 2012. (17% in 2010, went down to 5% in 2011, and went up to 32% in 2012)
The Environmental sector had the most e-mail open rates with 16%.
The Environmental sector had the most e-mail click through rate with 2.6%.
The Environmental sector had the most e-mail advocacy click through rate with 5.5%.
The two sectors with the highest e-mail newsletter click through rates were Environmental (with 2.9%) and Wildlife & Animal Welfare (with 2.1%)

Treasured Links About Blogging and Nonprofit Blogging

2013-03-18T21:33:00.000-04:00

Blogging

5 Types of Blog Content That Drive Engagement (Social Media Today)

50 Blog Ideas to Help You Keep Your Blog Fresh (Marluck Marketing)

Social Media: 23 Ways To Promote Your Blog (Heidi Cohen)

How To Get More Blog Traffic (Business 2 Community)

Blogging Tips A-Z: the Ultimate Guide (Business 2 Community)

What Painter Bob Ross Can Teach Us About Blogging (Business 2 Community)

The Secret to Creating Stellar Content Marketing (Heidi Cohen)

65 Metrics To Track Blog Success (Heidi Cohen)

Nonprofit Blogging

Should Your Nonprofit Start a Blog? – Benefits and Drawbacks (Wired Impact's Blog)

11 Blog Content Ideas for Nonprofits (Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog)

Quick Guide to Starting A Nonprofit Blog (Nonprofit Bridge)

Four Things A Blog Can Do For Your Nonprofit (The Salsa Scoop)

7 Tips for Successful Nonprofit Blogging (Miratel Solutions)

Clairification's Series of Posts about Nonprofit Blogging

Image from tao_zhyn on Flickr

How Nonprofits Are Like Snowflakes

2013-02-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

Nonprofit organizations are like snowflakes. There are many organizations that are trying to solve the same problems. But each organization is unique in their way of solving the problem. Just like snowflakes, no organization is the same.

One way for nonprofits to share how their organization is unique is by sharing their stories on the Internet. Nonprofit Quarterly has some great web content ideas for nonprofits in their article titled "The Role of Hope in the Nonprofit Website".

Here are some ideas mentioned in the article -

Showcase your past impact my sharing your past successes
Share stories about individuals
Share data
Let community members tell their own stories

How Nonprofits Can Take Advantage of Their LinkedIn Page

2013-02-12T14:30:00.000-05:00

While researching nonprofits on LinkedIn, I noticed that many organizations are not taking advantage of their LinkedIn page.

Nonprofits can upload their logo, add a header image, share news, and add products & services. LinkedIn members can follow nonprofits to stay updated on their news and recommend their products & services.

I like how organizations (and companies) can add a thumbnail image for their products & services. The product or service has its own page on LinkedIn with a description and a link can be included to that product's page on the organization's website.

Examples of products & services listed:

The American Red Cross lists donating blood and disaster relief as services. The disaster relief page has a link to their newsroom on their website.
The American Cancer Society lists Relay for Life (which has 52 recommendations) and their blog as products. The Relay for Life page has a link to the Relay for Life website and the blog page has a link to their blog.

Listed below are links to LinkedIn pages for nonprofits that I think are great examples. These organizations have updated their pages with their logo and banner images. They have also listed products & services. Most of these organizations keep their followers updated by posting videos, photos, news updates, and links to their website.

American Red Cross

American Cancer Society

American Heart Association

National Kidney Foundation

Invisible Children Inc.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

The World Bank

Action Against Hunger | ACF-USA

The Nature Conservancy

Links for more information about LinkedIn pages:

HOW TO: Claim Your Nonprofit’s “Company Page” on LinkedIn (from Nonprofit Tech 2.0)

Company Pages - Frequently Asked Questions (from LinkedIn)

LinkedIn Offers Personalized Banner Image For Company Pages (from Business 2 Community)

What are your favorite nonprofit pages on LinkedIn?

Arts Organizations and Digital Technologies

2013-01-26T19:42:00.001-05:00

Pew Internet released a report this month titled "Arts Organizations and Digital Technologies".

Here are some of the findings that I thought were interesting:

The most common activities on arts organizations websites are content creation, sharing, and comments. These activities include posting photos (94%), allowing users to share content (90%), streaming & posting video (81%), streaming or posting audio (57%) maintaining a blog (50%).
The other major activity on websites is event promotion and management. These activities include maintaining an online calendar (74%) and selling tickets online (72%).
I was surprised to see that not many arts organizations have online exhibits (20%) and have educational/instructional content (22%) on their websites.
The three social media platforms used the most are Facebook (99%), Twitter (74%), and YouTube (67%).
The most common thing they do with social media is to engage with member before, during, or following an event (82%). The second most common thing is monitoring what people are saying about their organization (77%).

2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report

2013-01-15T12:14:00.000-05:00

The 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report was just released. Here are some of the findings:

The three most important goals nonprofit communications strategies are acquiring new donors (57%), engaging our community (52%) and general brand awareness (45%). Creating website traffic was at 22% and building print or e-mail list was at 18%.
Websites, social media other than blogging, and email marketing are the most important tools.
The three most important social media sites are Facebook (94%), Twitter (62%), and YouTube (42%).
Nonprofits are most likely to add or experiment with Pinterest this year.
Nonprofits expect to spend the most time this year producing content for Email newsletter articles (52%), Facebook updates (49%), event marketing (38%), and website articles (36%). Producing content for blog posts was at 20%, Twitter updates was at 18%, and infographics was at 6%.
The biggest challenge nonprofits expect to have is lack of time to produce quality content.

Food Bank Blogs

2012-12-21T21:00:00.000-05:00

VolunteerMatch is focusing on the issue of hunger this month and they have been writing about it on their blog. Their blog has an entry titled Inspiring and Influential Blogs About Hunger.

Since I like finding new nonprofit blogs, I decided to look for food bank blogs. However, I was disappointed with what I found. Not many food banks have blogs and ones that did were not updated.

Even though there were not many blogs for food banks, the ones I found gave me great ideas for nonprofit blogs.

Ideas:

Write an end of the year review post that highlights what you did each month.

The Food Bank of Delaware Blog recently posted their 2012 Year in Review. They also did this for 2011 and 2010.

Include an image, photo, or video with each blog entry.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository Blog does this.

Add categories/tags to each blog post and list them on your blog. The list can include include donate, donations, volunteer, supporters, events, news, and campaigns.

Most of the food bank blogs I found have categories or tags which make it easy to find information on blogs.

Food Bank Blog List:

Food Bank of Delaware

Greater Chicago Food Depository

Hunger Matters - the Second Harvest Heartland Blog

Bank on It: A Food Bank Blog

Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee

Vermont Foodbank Blog

The Power of Nonprofit Bloggers

2012-10-15T16:48:00.002-04:00

Today is Blog Action Day and this year's theme is "The Power of We". As the organizer/blogger of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, I read lots of blog articles about topics nonprofit organizations can learn from.

These articles have ideas, tips, and case studies about different topics that include the following:

Blogging
Website Content
Designing Websites
Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest)
Analyzing web, social media, and e-mail metrics
Online Fundraising
Videos and YouTube
Storytelling
E-Newsletters
Donor Communication

These articles have the power to help nonprofit organizations achieve their goals.

There are also nonprofit bloggers who write blogs for nonprofit organizations. These bloggers have the power to share stories about their organization, post news related to their mission, and find new supporters & volunteers.

What power does your nonprofit blog have?

How Nonprofits Can Use Pinterest

2012-02-22T11:15:00.002-05:00

I have started thinking about how nonprofits can use Pinterest.

I think museums, zoos, aquariums, and organizations that have to do with animals and the environment will benefit the most from this website. They have the content to share that people will want to pin and repin. People like to pin photos of animals, nature, and art. They will go to websites for these types of organizations to find photos to pin.

Content Nonprofits Can Pin on Pinterest

Do you have lots of pictures on your website? Organize them into different categories to make boards with.
Pin photos from campaigns, events, and programs.
Do you have an online store? Pin photos of the items and include the price.

Examples of Content Nonprofits Have Pinned

Wildlands Network pinned photos from their website onto a board called What We Do. This is a great way for people to see what the organization does.

Smithsonian pinned pictures from their website and organized them into boards. The boards they have created so far include football and Black History Month.

Kids Wish Network pinned pictures of wishes and programs.

ASPCA pinned pictures of items in their online store, photos of adoptable animals, and photos of rescue & adoption stories.

National Wildlife Foundation has a board called Animal Appreciation Days.

Links

Steal These 42 Creative Pinterest Ideas for Nonprofits (from frogloop)

Five Pinterest Best Practices for Nonprofits (from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog)

11 Must-Follow Nonprofits on Pinterest (from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog)

Interested in Pinterest? (from Connection Café)

Pinterest For Nonprofits: 7 Organizations To Watch (from Huffpost Impact)

Should your nonprofit be using Pinterest? (from Ragan's PR Daily)

How Pinterest Can Help Your Animal Nonprofit (from Pawsitively Design)

How your nonprofit can use Pinterest (from JVA's Nonprofit Street)

Types of Nonprofit Blogs

2012-02-07T16:59:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about the different types of nonprofit blogs.

Nonprofit blogs can be divided up into two major categories -

Blogs for a nonprofit organization
Blogs about nonprofits

Blogs about nonprofits can be divided up even more. Types of blogs about nonprofits include technology, fundraising, communications, and volunteering. These types can overlap.

Are there any other types of nonprofit blogs?

Nonprofit Infographics

2012-01-30T21:45:00.002-05:00

I have seen lots of nonprofit infographics related to social media, fundraising, and communications. But there are not many related to missions of organizations or what organizations have accomplished.

I found two examples so far created by nonprofit organizations-

Share Our Strength shared data about Hunger and Children in America
The American Red Cross shared data about 2011 Large-Scale Disasters

Sharing data is a topic being discussed in the nonprofit sector. Here are a few articles about this topic-

Data for Promotion, Engagement, and Reporting (from Stanford Social Innovation Review)
How Nonprofits Make Data Fun and Informative (from The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
Four Ways Nonprofits Can Increase Their Impact with Data (from NTEN Blog)

Six Reasons to Start a Nonprofit Blog

2012-01-08T19:15:00.002-05:00

A new year is a great time to start a blog for your organization. Here are reasons why you should start a blog:

To write about events
To share news and stories related to the mission of the organization
To post volunteer opportunities
To post information on ways to donate money to organization
To post information on how the organization uses social media
To spread the word about the organization

Nonprofit Related Stacks on Delicious

2011-12-18T18:50:00.004-05:00

Here are some stacks related to nonprofits that I have found so far-

The Facebook Guide for Nonprofits

The Nonprofit Guide to Twitter

Nonprofits and More

Nonprofits in Canada - Statistics and other information

Non Profit & Charity Websites

NGOs

Dutch charity organisations & news

Get Involved! Volunteer!

How Zoos and Aquariums Use Social Media

2011-09-17T19:30:00.003-04:00

Beth Kanter recently posted an entry on her blog titled Bench Learning: Zoos and Aquariums Social Media. It's about a spreadsheet that keeps track of zoos and aquariums metrics on Twitter.

This entry reminded me that I had found some great examples about how zoos and aquariums are using social media and the Internet.

Georgia Aquarium

In the spring of 2009 the aquarium offered an admission discount to their Twitter followers and their fans on Facebook and MySpace. The promotion brought in $42,000 in sales. They were able to track this through a URL created for the promotion.
(information is from What's your Twitter ROI? How to measure social media payoff)
In 2007 they started a relaunch of their website. A new feature was to allow visitors to the aquarium to submit their photos through flickr on their group's page. The pictures would be added to their map.
(information from Starting Small with Social Media: Georgia Aquarium Flickr Photogroup)
More examples about Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in this PowerPoint Presentation

National Aquarium in Baltimore

The aquarium uses e-mail marketing as a big part of their communications strategy. Their primary newsletter is called Aquamail.

They get e-mail addresses from their visitors through kiosks at exhibits and texting at dolphin shows. Visitors can stay in touch with dolphins or jellyfish by subscribing to Aquamail at the kiosks. The staff holds quizzes and contests at dolphin shows and use text messaging to capture answers and visitor information, and the visitors are invited to subscribe to Aquamail. When a visitor subscribes to Aquamail, they get a welcome message reminding them where they submitted their information and a call to action to update their profile.

More information at From Dolphin Encounter to Facebook Fan.

Other Examples, Stories, and Presentations

38 Ways Zoos and Aquariums are Engaging Audiences Through Social Technology

Using Social Technology to Engage Zoo & Aquarium Audiences

Two Social Media Strategies Perfect for Earth Day! Birch Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium

Two-Way Communication Using Social Media

Zoos Are Among Big Cats in Twitter Kingdom

Social Media: Am I Doing it Right?

Nonprofit Blogging Session Notes from Nonprofit 2.0 Unconference

2011-06-05T10:37:00.004-04:00

Questions Asked and Problems

Blogging takes a lot of time
It’s hard to motivate team to blog
How to re-motivate people to blog
Hard to demonstrate success of blog
How to start conversation on blog
How to market blog
How to motivate readers to read the blog
Is it worth the time to create a new blog for a program or use the larger organization blog

Tips

Repurpose content- write about reports and what organization is doing
Write shorter blog entries. Break up long entries into different posts.
Create an editorial calendar
Figure out where blog fits in communications strategy
Share web metrics with team
Use the blog to drive people back to website
Link to other bloggers
Comments on blog keeps blogger motivated
Start commenting on other blogs
Ask people to comment on your blog
Ask questions on blog entries to start conversation
Comments are not the only way to measure success - look at web analytics, likes, and re-tweets
Connect with people connected with organization
Need to know your market to know how to market your blog
You can experiment with blogs
Content ideas- Tell failures, Q & A with experts
Link to older blog entries on blog
Put a live feed on the website. It looks like the site is updated. The feed could be from the blog or Twitter.
It doesn’t matter if the blog is built on website or third party. Do whatever is easiest.

Notes from 5 Biggest Trends in Online Fundraising Session

2011-03-27T22:20:00.005-04:00

This session was about Blackbaud's 2010 Online Giving Report. Here is a summary of the session and the report.

Questions Always Asked

How much money is raised online
How much money raised is from online

2010 Online Giving Report

Online giving went up 35%
January was the month that had the largest percentage of online giving for 2010 . Usually December is the month that has the largest percentage. For 2010, 18.4% of online giving took place in January and 18.3% took place in December. This was because of the Haiti earthquake.
International Affairs went up by 130.8%
Activists are 7 times more likely to donate
Best targets for activists - a repeat activist who took action within the last 24 hours, current donor who took action within the last month, or a super activist who took 6+ actions in the last 12 months
Ask to give after taking action
Nonprofits on Facebook- 77.6% raise less than $1,000
Mobile giving is the future
Organizations can use the report by looking at the trends for the size of the organization and by sector

Fundraising for Emergencies

Be prepared
Act quick
Most people give on websites and do not wait for a message to give

Online Giving for Disasters

People give within the first 5 days
Online giving in the first 5 days after the Haiti Earthquake was 19% more than the 2004 Asian Tsunami and 109% more than Hurricane Katrina

An interesting question was asked at the session asking if other online fundraising reports showed the same trends. I am interested in looking at other reports to see how they are alike and different.

Notes from NTC Unconference

2011-03-26T22:59:00.006-04:00

Social Media

Ask for help to save lives in different locations. Big Love Little Hearts has been successful with this.
An organization that raises awareness about AIDS was looking for ideas to raise awareness all year long - not just around awareness days. One suggestion was to post a video of someone with the condition once a week.

Web Strategy

In this discussion, we discussed sharing resources across groups that are the same to see what different places are doing. Examples of these groups are NetSquared local groups and food banks.

We also discussed content curation. Roundups are good to share recent content.

Notes From Nonprofit Blogging Affinity Group Meeting at NTC

2011-03-21T22:39:00.006-04:00

All Blogs Should Have:

RSS Feed
Use feedburner because you won’t lose readers if your blog url changes
A title – mention what organization the blog is for
Link back to the organization’s page
Be sure to include a link to the blog on the organization’s page
Analytics installed

Favorite Blogs

Beth’s Blog (http://www.bethkanter.org/)
Red Cross (http://blog.redcross.org/)
Getting Attention (http://gettingattention.org/)
Oxfam Blog

Challenges Organizations Have With Blogging

Different audiences
Not knowing what to say
Who keeps the blog going

Content for Blogs

Event Updates
Content Swap/ Guest Blogging – Drives traffic to original content
Add Contributor profiles at the end of each blog entry if blog is written by multiple people
Use tags and categories
One organization uses a rule that for every 4 entries written, one entry asks for money
Follow Twitter to get news from staff in the field
Wordless Wednesday – ASPCA does this and gets lots of comments (See Wordless Wednesday on ASPCA for more information)
Ask Subject Matter Experts for content

Volunteers Blogging

Huge asset
Problem is they are not trained writers
Ask them to write about a topic (Will you write about ___?)

Comments

One organization closes comments after two weeks of posting the blog entry
Moderate Comments
Spam

Finding Photos

Flickr
Contact photographer directly to ask permission to use

Social Media

Ping.fm to share blog posts
It is best to share blog posts with different text on social media sites (wording should be different on Facebook and Twitter)

How to Measure Success of Blog

Number of hits
Number of subscribers

How I Have Used Delicious Over the Years

2010-12-28T20:15:00.000-05:00

I heard that delicious might be shutting down and I started thinking about how I have used the site over the years.

To connect with others through the nptech tag experiment
I started learning about the nonprofit technology field in late 2004. I learned about the nptech tag experiment in early 2005 and joined delicious to participate. Through this project I connected with Marnie, Deborah, and others.

To share resources with others by using tags and analyze what tags other people were using
When I first started saving bookmarks I used as many tags as I could think of to describe the website. I would always look and see what tags others used to describe sites. I analyzed the nptech bookmarks to see what other tags were used.

To learn about resources by tags and popular sites

I would always look at tags to see what new sites were added. I also find new sites from the main delicious page.

A place to store all my bookmarks and resources I would like to read at a later time

To organize the Nonprofit Blog Exchange content

Since starting The Nonprofit Blog Exchange, I have added all the blogs that are part of the project to delicious. Every month I write roundups and I keep track of which entries to include by saving them on delicious.

To write blog entries about delicious

My most popular entry titled Tagging Bookmarks with del.icio.us for Educators was written in April 2005.

Nonprofit Awareness Through Websites

2010-11-19T21:20:00.001-05:00

The most important thing an organization needs to have on the Internet is a website. People look at websites to learn more about organizations.

Whenever I learn about an organization through Twitter or blogs, I always check out their website to learn more about them. I always want to know what their mission is and where they are located. It is very important that organizations include their website address in their profiles on social media sites and blogs.

Nonprofits can increase awareness by having the following information on their websites:

Mission
Information About Programs, Events, and Campaigns
Information About Topics Related to the Organization
Press Releases / News Articles About Organization
Contact Information

My Have Fun and Do Good List

2010-10-17T23:15:00.003-04:00

Britt wrote an entry on her blog titled How to Find Your Way to Have Fun and Do Good. She asks for others to make their own list, so I made a list.

My Have Fun

Play with social media
Read blogs
Update website content
Code in HTML
Internet research
Learn about how different places use social media
Writing
Analyzing data
Play games
Solve puzzles
Staying busy with different groups I am involved in
Meet new people

My Do Good

Being a leader
Volunteering
Sharing resources with others

My Have Fun, Do Good

Writing a blog about topics I enjoy to research about and write (this blog, Emily's World)
Volunteer my time to write a blog to share resources with others and connect nonprofit bloggers with each other (Nonprofit Blog Exchange)
Analyze web analytics for both blogs
Work on websites for large nonprofit organizations or associations (past jobs I had)
Being a leader in organizations by planning events for young professionals in the DC area

How Breast Cancer Awareness Groups Use Facebook and Twitter

2010-10-10T12:35:00.003-04:00

I read an article on montgomeryadvertiser.com titled
'Social' Support: Breast cancer groups use Facebook, Twitter to boost awareness.

Here are some interesting facts from the article:

Breast cancer groups use social media to reach people who might not otherwise hear their message.
Breast cancer groups have different objectives and different groups they try to reach.
Volunteers for the American Cancer Society use social media to get the word out about events.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure uses its Facebook page, which has more than 280,000 likes, to drive traffic to its website. People are coming to their website to learn more about the information they are posting.
Twitter is also useful for posting information about events. Followers of a group can retweet messages for their followers to see.

After reading this article, I started thinking about nonprofits using Facebook and Twitter.

Here are my thoughts:

Organizations can encourage their supporters to post information about upcoming events and campaigns on both Facebook and Twitter.
Use Facebook and Twitter to post links from your organization's website. Link to new reports, studies, press releases, new resources, and any other new content on the website. Followers and people who like your organization do not check your organization's website daily. They can see your new content through links on Facebook and Twitter.
Organizations reach new people through social media.

Bloglines and RSS Feeds

2010-09-19T19:56:00.004-04:00

I just read an entry on BlogHer titled "Is RSS Dead? Bloglines to Close on October 1". I have been using Bloglines since 2005 and had two accounts.

The first account I created was to get the latest news from blogs about nonprofit technology, educational technology, and web design. For the past couple of years I had stopped checking that account because I was too busy checking my second account.

The second account was for The Nonprofit Blog Exchange. I used the public account to post the blogroll on The Nonprofit Blog Exchange blog for about 5 years.

I made the switch a few months ago to Google Reader. I had noticed that feeds were not loading correctly in Bloglines. I thought some blogs were not updated anymore. But it turned out it they were still updated, the updates loaded in Google Reader but not Bloglines. I moved The Nonprofit Blog Exchange account over to Google Reader.

After I made that switch I went into my other account and noticed Bloglines now required a word verification to sign in. I really did want to deal with that to read my rss feeds each time I logged in. I finally moved my other account over to Google Reader.

I would be lost without an rss feed reader! It helps me keep track of all the blogs that are part of the exchange. I use it to help me with writing roundups and it helps me figure out where I leave off reading each blog.

How to Use Delicious to Find and Share Disaster Relief Resources

2010-09-02T15:45:00.002-04:00

In September 2005 I wrote an entry titled How to Tag Hurricane Katrina Bookmarks on del.icio.us.

Recently there have been more disasters and it is time to revisit this topic.

What is delicious?

Delicious is a great tool to share bookmarks with others. When you add a bookmark, you can add tags that are related to the link.

You can find shared bookmarks by using tags or by using the search engine.

What resources can you find and share on delicious?

News articles about specific disasters
What organizations are helping and how they are helping
Information about volunteering
Information about donating

Disaster Relief Related Tags

disaster AND relief
http://www.delicious.com/tag/disaster+relief

hurricane
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane

earthquake
http://www.delicious.com/tag/earthquake

flood
http://www.delicious.com/tag/flood

oilspill
http://www.delicious.com/tag/oilspill

For specific disasters, you can use the following format:

http://www.delicious.com/tag/TYPEOFDISASTER+PLACE

Earthquake AND Haiti
http://www.delicious.com/tag/earthquake+haiti

Earthquake AND Chile
http://www.delicious.com/tag/earthquake+chile

Flood AND Pakistan
http://www.delicious.com/tag/flood+pakistan

Hurricane AND New Orleans
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane+neworleans

Oil Spill AND Gulf Coast
http://www.delicious.com/tag/oilspill+gulfcoast

For hurricanes (or tropical storms) you can use the following formats-

http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane+NAME
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricaneNAME
http://www.delicious.com/tag/NAMEOFHURRICANE

Hurricane AND Katrina
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane+katrina