Emily's World

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

Nonprofits Use Social Media More Than Businesses and Education

2010-08-01T10:50:00.000-04:00

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research published a report titled US Charities’ Adoption of Social Media Study. This is the third year they have published a study about nonprofits using social media. They received responses from 76 organizations.

Here are some of the findings of the report:

In 2009, nonprofits used Social Networking (96%) and Twitter (90%) the most. Social Networking went up from 32% in 2007 and 79% in 2008.
In 2009, 65% of nonprofits used blogs which went up from 34% in 2007 and 57% in 2008.
In 2009, 93% of nonprofits used Facebook, compared with Higher Education at 84% and Inc. 500 at 61%.
In 2009, 90% of nonprofits used Twitter, compared with Higher Education at 59% and Inc. 500 at 52%.
In 2009, the adoption of blogging for nonprofits was 65%, compared to 51% for Higher Education, 45% for Inc. 500, and 22% for Fortune 500.

Ways to Improve Nonprofit Websites

2010-05-20T20:40:00.003-04:00

This is a topic I have written about before on my blog. Earlier entries I have written are Website Pet Peeves and Content Ideas for Non-profit Websites.

I just read a blog entry at Marketing for Nonprofits about nonprofit websites and I started thinking about this topic again. Listed below are some ways nonprofit websites can be improved.

1. Easy to Find Content

What content do you want people to know about on your site? Make sure website visitors can find this information quickly! Examples include how to donate, how to volunteer, how to sign up on e-mail lists, events, and campaigns.

2. News Items

Make sure you keep press releases and other news sections current! There are many organizations that have not kept their news sections updated in years - it's hard to believe that these organizations have not had any news in over a year or longer

3. Contact Information

There are many organizations that do not list their contact information or it is hard to find on their website. Readers want to know where your organization is located! If your organization does not want to put down complete contact information, at least put down the city and state or country if you are not located in the United States.

4. Page Titles

There are many websites that do not have the organization's name in the title. These websites have titles like Home Page or Home. That's not very descriptive! Be sure to include your organization's name in the titles of your pages! Also, if you are updating a newsletter or something else with a date on it, be sure to remember to change the date on the page. I have seen lots of newsletters on websites (and e-newsletters) where the title says April 2010 when it is really for May 2010.

5. Design

Content Management Systems are the way to go now for nonprofits. However, there are still nonprofits who are updating websites manually and these sites do not always have the best design and usability. Make sure all webpages on the site have the same color and navigation scheme. Make sure visitors are able to tell what text or image is a link. Make sure the information is not cluttered and there is not too much white space.

6. Social Media

Does your organization have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr or another related site? Be sure to include the links to these sites on your organization website! It can be listed on the homepage or it can be listed on a separate page for Social Media. Be sure it is easy to find on the site! Also remember to include your website address on these other sites. Alot of people learn about your organization through these websites.

7. Blogs

Does your organization have a blog? Make sure the link is easy to find on the website! Be sure the name of the organization and link to website is on the blog. As a nonprofit blog reader, I have seen many blogs that do not tell me what organization it is or a link to their web address. Remember that some people learn about your organization from your blog!

The Connection Between Websites and Social Media

2010-04-26T12:15:00.002-04:00

Even though I was not able to attend the Nonprofit Technology Conference this year, I was able to attend one session virtually through Causecast. The session was "The Art of Aligning Social Media Strategy With Communications Strategy".

Here are two things I learned from this session:

1) The purpose of social media is to drive traffic to websites.
2) Websites come before using social media. "Eat your vegetables (website) before you eat dessert. Social media is dessert."

I have been thinking about these things and how websites and social media relate to each other.

Here are some tips for nonprofits:

Analyzing Visitors, Fans, and Followers

Check your website analytics and see what your top pages are on your website. This is what your visitors are interested in. Make sure this content is posted on social media.
What type of content are your fans on Facebook commenting on, asking about, or liking? What are people retweeting or talking about on twitter? Are you putting enough content about these topics on your website?

Content to Share on Social Media

Press Releases
Campaign Pages
Fundraiser Pages
Event Pages
Volunteer/Job Opportunities
New Additions to Website

I look forward to attending NTC in DC next year!

Two Ways to Improve Facebook Pages

2010-04-12T13:38:00.002-04:00

1. Content

Update your content on your facebook page regularly. It does not have to be daily, but at least once a week to keep content fresh.

2. Promote Your Facebook Page

Do people know that you have a facebook page? Are you looking for more fans? Remember to let people know by including information about your page on your website, e-mails, and anything printed or on the web.

Survey on Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals

2010-03-01T13:00:00.000-05:00

Idealware just published a report titled Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals: The Results of a Survey. This is based on a survey that Idealware conducted in November 2009 about how nonprofits use social media. They received responses from 459 nonprofit staff members about their use of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, video sharing, photo sharing, and blogs.

Here are some of the findings of the report:

The social media channel that was used the most was Facebook and more than half of them update their content on there regularly
Nonprofits are using social media the most to reach new potential supporters and to enhance relations with existing audience
The respondents felt that social media was not effective for raising money

How Nonprofits Can Search Blogs and Twitter to Find Supporters

2010-02-10T20:15:00.001-05:00

There are many ways nonprofits can find supporters on the internet. Two of these ways include searching blogs and Twitter. This is a great way to see who is writing and talking about your organization and a particular topic related to your organization.

What to search for:

Your organization's name
Topics related to your organization's issue
Campaign your organization is having
An event for your organization

Where to search:

How to Connect With Supporters:

Write comments on their blog entries
Send a tweet or direct message to thank the person who tweeted about your organization
Follow the person on Twitter (and if they are not following you yet, they can learn you are on twitter and hopefully follow you back)
Retweet their messages
Link to their blog post in your tweet

Case Studies About Social Media

2009-12-09T15:30:00.003-05:00

I enjoy reading about social media and how different places use it. I was very excited to find case studies at Ignite's Blog.

They have two lists of case studies-

40 Susan G. Komen for the Cure Affiliate Facebook Pages

2009-10-23T14:15:00.000-04:00

Susan G. Komen For The Cure Facebook Page

Komen Affiliate Facebook Pages:

Blog Action Day - Climate Change Content on Facebook

2009-10-15T23:25:00.000-04:00

There are many groups, pages, and causes on Facebook that have to do with climate change.

Here are some examples of climate change content on Facebook:

Climate Witness in Action is World Wildlife Fund's initiative to help people share their stories about how climate change is impacting on their local environment and communities and what they are doing to be part of the solution. WWF setup a cause for this and has 1,053 members.
Rainforest2Reef has a cause called Protecting the Rainforest to Slow Climate Change. They have 2,015 members and have raised $235 with this cause.
CARE setup a cause for their campaign called The Human Face of Climate Change. This cause has 9,606 members and has raised $464.
The Climate Project has a cause with 4,266 members and has raised $457. They also have a group with 2,565 members.
Unite for Climate has a page where photos and links are shared.
Climate Solutions has a page where they post lots of links.
The Climate Institute, an organization in Australia, has a group and a page.
Campaign against Climate Change is a campaign in the United Kingdom. They have a group with 4,361 members and a page with 4,543 fans.
Protect Our Winters shares links on their page and has 5,635 fans. They also have a group with 7,982 members.

Goals and Ideas for Nonprofit Blogs

2009-09-08T13:50:00.006-04:00

I came across an interesting blog entry and presentation at Community Organizer 2.0 titled Strategic Blogging for Nonprofits.

According to the blog entry, there are three questions that should be asked when working on a blog for an organization.

Who is your audience?
Why are they coming to your blog?
What do you want them to do?

The presentation has some ideas of topics nonprofits can blog about.

Here are some ideas:

News/Updates
Campaign Information
Behind the Scenes
Call to Action
Personal Stories
Achievements

Links for May

2009-05-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

Here are some interesting websites and blog entries that I wanted to with my readers-

9 Reasons Social Media and the Web Can Save Wildlife from National Wildlife Foundation's Blog
Five Things To Do With Your Nonprofit Blog from Notes for Non-Profits
Non Profit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices from Smashing Magazine
Web Design Industry Jargon: Glossary and Resources from Smashing Magazine
U.S. Government Channel on YouTube

Government Resources About Earth Day and the Environment

2009-04-25T17:15:00.001-04:00

Here are some resources from the U.S. Government about Earth Day and the environment:

Earth Day - US Government Portal

Earth Day from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) - Earth Day 2009

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: Earth Day (U.S. Department of Energy)

Remarks at the State Department's "Greening Diplomacy" Earth Day Event

The White House - Press Office - Presidential Proclamation - Earth Day

Earth Day Resources from Library of Congress