In the first part of this series we explored what blogs are, how they started and what they have become over the years.  Today were’ going to talk about blogs that promote a charitable, non-commercial cause in one way or another.

There’s a pretty important reason why I didn’t name this site “Nonprofit Blogger.”  The information presented here is of course relevant to nonprofits and occasionally I’ll discuss issues that impact 501c3 organizations in particular.  However there are other types of groups that blog for a cause, some are formal organizations and others are not.

So I like to refer to this group collectively as “Cause Bloggers” instead.  You may notice I also like to use the name “Cause Enthusiasts” which includes nonprofit organizations, other group types and individual supporters.

As I mentioned last time, blogs that promote a not-for-profit cause are some of the most growing types of blogs on the web.  At last year’s national AFP conference, where traditional topics like planned giving  and special events are the norm, there was more than one presentation about blogging.  On the flipside, at one of the biggest internet technology conferences, BlogWorld Expo, a seminar track specifically for causes was offered for the first time this year.

Cause blogs can be placed into five categories:

1. Nonprofit organizations

Let’s start with the most obvious. Charitable organizations of every size and shape are blogging;  This includes international organizations, national charity headquarters,  local affiliates and local/regional groups.  Nonprofits with just about any mission can benefit from a blog: social service agency, environmental group, foundation, school or any of the hundreds of types of causes out there.

Blogs that are published by a nonprofit organization are authored by a member of the staff or a trained volunteer.  The blog may have multiple authors, for example, the executive director, a volunteer manager and someone who works directly in service delivery.

The topics of nonprofit blog posts may include:

• Announcements about upcoming events such as fundraisers, an open house or volunteer training day
• Photos and stories after events have happened
• Profiles of volunteers or donors
• Stories about service recipients
• “In their own words” accounts from volunteers or clients
• Updates on new or ongoing projects

The tone of the blog varies depending on who is writing. Like personal blogs, nonprofit blogs are most engaging when written in the first person from someone who lets their personality shine through.  On a nonprofit blog this does not mean the writer shares about their personal life, but writes about the cause and the nonprofit in a personable, interesting way.

A nonprofit that does a great job with their blog is Heroes for Children.  They use the free blog service provided by Blogger to publish news items, featured events, and spotlight the volunteers, children and families they work with.  Posts are written by several authors including the group’s founders.  You’ll find many engaging stories and photos on this blog that helps the reader feel connected to the cause.

They’ve also integrated their Twitter stream on the top left.  I’ll talk more about social networks in a future post, but as you can see here the quick publishing nature of Twitter makes it easy to keep the blog updated when you don’t have time to add a full blog post.

2. Associations or coalitions

There are a variety of groups whose focus is advocacy, informing the public about a cause or providing benefits for association members, rather than service delivery.  They may or may not be 501c3 nonprofits.  Posts on these blogs may report on policy positions, activities such as demonstrations or petitions, or providing up-to-date information about a particular topic.

The ONE Campaign has a very active blog that is in addition to their website.  They have multiple authors whose names appear at the top of the entries.  They report on news related to fighting poverty in the United States and around the world.

Photos and videos also play an important part of making the cause real to people who read the site.  Showing ONE events and volunteers demonstrates the strength and credibility of the campaign.  Readers can write comments related to the stories featured on the site, providing a venue for two-way communication.  Visitors are also invited to participate by hosting a ONE banner on their own website or blog, and by joining their group on Facebook.

3. Government and political related blogs

There are a variety of government and politically related blogs.  Some are non-partisan, others are campaign oriented or are otherwise promoting one or more agenda or policy positions.  Here are some of the types of political groups that are blogging:

• Government offices
• Elected or appointed officials
• Political action groups, non party affiliated
• Watchdog groups
• Political parties

You’ll find political blogs at all levels, for example the White House has a blog as another way to provide public information.  It includes policy issues as well as more lighthearted features.  Candidates in local elections can easily set up a blog like Todd Pipitone did using Wordpress.com when he recently ran (and later won) a town council seat.

Just like other blogs with a non-commercial purpose, political blogs are a way to publicize a particular point of view. In a recent article on PBS.com, Steven Davy said, “Politicians are figuring out what social media technologies like blogs, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have to offer: direct access to voters.” while on the other hand, “It’s important in a healthy political environment for journalism to maintain its core functions to inform the public and keep a critical eye on government.”  Blogs provide a venue for both sides of the political equation.

4. Corporations

While many businesses blog to promote their goods or services, some are even blogging for a charitable purpose.  These blogs may be written by someone in their community relations department or an associated foundation.  While the site promotes the company in a round-about way, the focus is publicizing a cause, and what what the company and employees are doing to help.

A great example of a community focused blog published by a for-profit business is the Tyson Hunger Relief blog.  According to their “Our Commitment” page:

Since we joined the fight against hunger in 2000, Tyson Foods has partnered with several national organizations including America’s Second Harvest and Share Our Strength to help make a difference where we can. Through these partnerships, Tyson Foods has donated more than 54 million pounds of chicken, beef or pork – enough for approximately 216 million meals – to food banks and agencies serving local communities around the country.

What I love about the Tyson blog is how they shine the spotlight not on themselves, but on individuals and groups who are working on this issue.  They feature Hunger All-Stars who are sometimes public leaders, but more often are working behind the scenes to help people at risk of going hungry.   The blog also showcases local food banks and pantry programs.  They are great at “spreading the love” to other bloggers and Twitterers who advocate for hunger relief.

Overall I think they do a great job at storytelling.  The personal profiles are balanced out with a variety of other informative topics and Tyson activities.  You’ll also find a good use of photos and lot of videos on this blog.

5. Every day advocates

This is the largest group of cause bloggers!  They’re the ones that can make the most difference in raising awareness, advocacy and even fundraising.

The Technorati 2009 State of the Blogosphere report showed that an overwhelming 72% of blogs are personal topics, not business related. These are people who blog about what they care about – a hobby, their family and causes they support.

These everyday advocates are writing these blog posts about causes they care about just because they get personal satisfaction from doing so.  They want to tell their friends, family and the world about an issue.  They may just want to spread information or also aim to get others to join in to lend support.

A blog may focus completely on a cause related topic if the writer is very passionate about it.  Otherwise, you’ll find these are simply individual posts on a personal blog, for example:

1. Posting as part of a blogging event like Blog Action Day or Bloggers Unite
2. Participating in an athletic event such as a 5K run that benefits a charity
3. Talking about how their family participates in the community, such as school activities or holiday celebrations
4. Reflections on their personal struggles, such as cancer or other health issues

These cause bloggers are usually doing so on their own accord, without direction or requirement. However, nonprofit organizations have a great opportunity to leverage the publicity their cause is already getting because of these passionate cause bloggers!

Here are a few ways that nonprofit organizations can connect with cause bloggers:

• Leave a relevant comment on their blog post
• Subscribe to their RSS Feed so you can get to know them
• Email the blogger and thank them for their dedication to the cause
• Recruit bloggers to write a guest post for your nonprofit’s blog
• Sponsor a blog action day
• Have a blog writing contest
• Follow their twitter feed
• Ask and answer questions on Twitter

So that is a run-down of the major types of cause blogs.  Hopefully this has given you some ideas about the scope and opportunities that blogging provides in publicizing a cause.  Next up… In Part 3 – What are the goals of cause blogging? I’ll discuss the benefits and goals of cause blogging.

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Blogs have been around for a long time but there are many people that are just now finding out about them.  I sometimes still get quizzical looks when I say that I blog or attempt to discuss how great blogging can be – for personal reasons, business or nonprofits.

The truth is, there’s nothing complicated about what a blog is, or what it can do.  In this post I’ll answer the question “what is a blog” in simple terms from a historical perspective, and what blogs really mean today.

A blog (which is short for the term “weblog”) is a website where the publisher shares news and/or opinions with readers. Entries (called posts) are often listed in order of most recent first on the main homepage.  People who publish blogs are often called bloggers, and you can use the verb “to blog” to describe the activity.

As this excellent video from Common Craft says, blogging makes sharing news easy…

Blogs often share other characteristics such as the ability for readers to leave comments on posts.  This provides a venue for communication not just between the blogger and individual readers, but amongst readers themselves.

Darren Rouse, publisher of Problogger and co-author  with Christ Garrett on a book by the same name says that building community is one of the most important principles of building a successful blog: “Over the last 7 years I’ve started over 30 blogs – the three that became most successful for me were the three that became communities rather than just information portals.”

By nature blogging is a social medium, and often bloggers will link to other blogs that provide similar content, sometimes along with a quote that applies to a particular point.  (As you will see from this post!) Additionally, most blogs have a page for date based and/or category based archives to make it easy for readers to find back-content.

This is the end of short and sweet answer to “what is a blog?”  For more information than you probably require check out the wikipedia reference list or keep reading…

A brief history of blogging

Back in the mid-1990’s the earliest blogs were generally of one of two formats…

1. The weblog was often just a page where webmasters would publish a list of site changes in reverse chronological order.   Others were just lists of favorite weblinks that the person wanted to share with others.

2. Personal blogs, akin to a diary, are usually written by one individual who is simply publishing updates on their personal life.  Personal blogs may include opinions, links, and photos.  Some personal bloggers write to keep friends and family updated; others do so just for the enjoyment of it, and don’t care whether posts are read and by whom.

Blogging today

Since its beginnings as primarily a web based personal diary, the blog has evolved into a platform for sharing news and ideas of all kinds, with commercial and non-commercial purposes.  To explore some of the many different topcis coered by blogs you can visit a site like Blog Catalog which has a topic based directory or see blogs.com top 10 lists.

In the early 2000’s blog publishing tools and platforms became available to make blogging easier to use, many of which were free, and helped increase the popularity of blogging.

Why is blogging so popular? In short,

“It’s the easiest, cheapest, fastest publishing tool ever invented,” said Jeff Jarvis, news blogger, media pundit and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. “The people have a voice they didn’t have before.”

(from Wired, After 10 Years of Blogs, the Future’s Brighter Than Ever)

How big is blogging today? Here are some statistics provided by Blogworld:

• Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
• Over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

Types of blogs

In general blogs fall into two broad categories: personal and business. Technorati, a website which aggregates thousands of blogs and blog posts recently published its 2009 State of the Blogosphere report. It showed that 72% of blogs are hobby and 28% are business related. However, the study also found that personal bloggers are posting less frequently and business related blogs are growing.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of different types of blogs:

1. Personal or Hobby Blog

Many bloggers just write for the fun of it, to share their ideas, events happening in their life or thoughts on a particular subject.  Many writers  focus on the hobby they are passionate about and only briefly mention personal life details.  The Technorati report further described the motivations and habits of personal blogs:

Representing 72% of the respondents to this survey, hobbyists say that they blog for fun. They don’t make any money from their blogging – and only some would like to do so. More than any other group, though, Hobbyists say they blog to express their “personal musings” (53%). 71% update at least weekly, while 22% update daily. Because 76% blog to speak their minds, their main success metric is personal satisfaction (76%).

There are blogs on just about everything: sports, food, photography, celebrities, fashion, business…the list goes on and on.  Often blogs will be about a micro-topic within a broad category, for example, Cupcakes Take the Cake focuses on just, you guessed it, cupcakes.

2. Business

Many businesses from solo entrepreneurs to multi-national corporations, are using blogging as an effective strategy to reach customers.  In all cases, a blog provides a much more personal way to connect with current and potential customers.  Here are some of the benefits for specific businesses with examples:

• Corporations publish company news with a more personal touch than traditional press releases (Southwest Airlines)
• Small businesses highlight products, sales and connect with local customers (Allen’s Retail Liquor)
• Real estate agents share information about listings, tips for buying/selling a home (ReBlogWorld)
• Consultants share their expertise, which increases their reputation, trust with the audience and get more clients (Pamela Grow)
• Professional speakers share video clips of speaking gigs, with aim of getting more bookings (Mike Robbins)
• Authors blog to connect with readers/fans, sell more books (Neil Gaiman)

3. Problogs

While existing businesses may blog to promote their products or services, there are other blogs that generate revenue directly from the web.  These blogs focus on a specific topic and often written by one person, a solo-entrepreneur or “problogger.”   It’s unclear who first coined the phrase, but Darren These blogs generate revenue from space advertising, programs such as Adsense, affiliate programs or the sale of products.

David Risley publishes PC Mech, a blog with computer and technology information.  This is how he describes problogging:

As a pro blogger, we are not interested in promoting an offline business. Secondly, a pro blogger specifically targets a market and does not blog about anything he finds interesting. A pro blogger has to stay on topic. A pro blogger often releases content in a strategic fashion so as to promote a particular product, and the methods of doing so is an entire subject otherwise known as marketing.

Being a problogger is demanding. It requires a combination of writing skills and marketing skills. It can also be very lucrative if you are in the right market and are adept at the two above skills.

Sometimes blogs will start out simply as a hobby, and as they gain popularity the owner will begin to monetize the site.  This is what happened to me when I started Step by Step Fundraising.  At the time I wanted to start a web-based business, but I didn’t think this site would be a web business.  I was simply sharing my own experiences fundraising as a volunteer with others.  I was surprised to find that after several months the site was getting pretty popular and there were ways to earn an income from it!

While many problogs provide a part or full time income for the sole writer, others employ not just one person but several, sometimes hundreds.  Weblogs Inc. (which was purchased by AOL) and b5Media are two of the largest blog networks that hire writers to provide content for their blogs.

4. Journalism

Traditional print newspapers are now using the blog platform to publish online versions of their articles.  The LA Times is listed in the Top 100 blogs by Technorati (as of today it’s at position 20).   However, a media outlet doesn’t have to be in a big market or national stage to take advantage of blogging.  My hometown newspaper, which serves a population of about 125K uses a blogging platform.

Some journalists are bypassing traditional media altogether.  Many of these blogs started as single journalist publishing their work as a blog and evolved into a multi-author site. Some of the most well known journalistic blogs are Huffington Post and Daily Kos.  Many others can be found at the Technorati list of political blogs.

5. Cause blogs

Blogs that promote a not-for-profit cause are some of the most growing types of blogs on the web.  As evidence, this year was the first time since the BlogWorld conference began in 2007 that a seminar track specifically for nonprofits and cause marketing was offered.  A number of volunteers and nonprofit staff were in attendance. A social media fundraising campaign was conducted which raised over $70,000 for cancer related nonprofits.

A wide variety of cause based groups are gaining publicity, educating the pubic about an issue, connecting with donors, recruiting volunteers and reaping many other intangible benefits by blogging.

In the rest of this series I’ll explore examples of great cause blogs, how nonprofits can impliment a blogging strategy without spending lots of money and how to set goals and measure outcomes.

Next up… Part 2 – Who are cause bloggers?

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I’ve found quite a few smart folks to connect with just by keeping up with the twitter stream.  I’ve also watched several of the the live webcasts (which will be archived for on-demand viewing later). It’s the best that junior and I can do, but nothing beats going to a live event.  You get a lot of information from the sessions, usually from some of the top professionals in their field.  The social networking during and after the sessions is just as important though, if not more so!  I’ve made some valuable contacts just sitting next to someone in the audience or introducing myself at lunch.

At Blog World this year there are several “cause sessions” with leaders from various charitable efforts.  There was a session yesterday just about cancer and a conference wide follow-up campaign:  Every time #BeatCancer is mentioned on Twitter or Facebook 1 cent will be donated to charity:

In a 24-hour period of time starting Friday, October 16th at 9 am (PDT) and lasting until Saturday, October 17th at 9am (PDT) people all over the internet stratosphere will be asked to send tweets and Facebook status updates and to blog using #BeatCancer in their posts. Ebay/Paypal and MillerCoors Brewing Company will donate a penny ($0.01)* for every Twitter message, Facebook update or blog post that includes the phrase #BeatCancer. All money will be donated to non-profit cancer organizations including SU2C (Stand Up to Cancer), Alex’s Lemonade, Bright Pink, and Spirit Jump. All of the non-profits are 501 (c)(3) organizations and accredited by The American Cancer Society. A listing of all organizations and a live stream of postings can be found at www.beatcancereverywhere.com.

In addition the campaign encourages people to donate directly to one of the four beneficiaries of the campaign.  I’m sure they are all great nonprofits but I’m a big fan of Alex’s Lemonade so that’s where I made a special gift.  Coincidentally, I recently included their Mike and Ike candy partnership as a good example of cause marketing.

It will be fun to see the results from this social media fundraising campaign.  Yes, it’s true… nonprofits can raise funds online through blogging and other forms of social media!  Of course money is just part of the picture.  Just like in traditional nonprofit fundraising, demonstrating results on mission, building great relationships with donors and consistent marketing generally precede funding.  And blogging can help with all of these efforts.

So if you don’t have a blog yet, you might wonder, is it too late to get into the game? No way!  This is perfect timing.  More people are using social media (of which blogging is a part) than ever, making it easier for you to connect with them about your issue.  Plus the tools are getting easier to use and more cost effective.  Sound cool?

Next week I’ll launch a series of blog posts I’ve been planning to do for a long time on cause blogging fundamentals.

We’ll start with a very basic question… What is a blog?

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A little background: I’ve been publishing blogs and websites using Wordpress since 2005.  When I started I had no clue about CSS and PHP, and still really don’t know more than just to hack the code.  What I usually do is start with a theme and then modify it to get exactly what I want.  As I said, I’m not a programmer, so this usually takes a lot of trial and error.  Mostly error!

For example, Step by Step Fundraising is the primary site that I have been running since 2003.  In early 2008 I switched from a theme called Craving 4 Green to Livewire from WooThemes.  Both themes required me to modify code to get the look and functionality that I wanted.  That was fine, as once I got the basic layout like I wanted there were not too many changes needed later.

So anyway, my point being that I can do these hacks but this time around I really didn’t want to. Three reasons:

1. Time spent hacking code was time I could be writing content or promoting the blog.
2. I wanted to review themes for potential recommendations. For those who are coming to Cause Blogger to learn how to set up a blog I wanted to find the best themes that would make the process easiest for a beginner.
3. Hacking code can be downright frustrating!

I tried Thesis (and promise to give it a better look someday) but I had couple of major problems with it.  You still had to hack code to even change font colors.  Second, I read tutorials and such on “hooks” and was still confused.  Moving on…

So I remembered that David Risley had posted something on his blog about a Thesis competitor.  I watched the screen capture video he created and was pretty convinced that it would be a good fit.  And I was right.  It is so easy to change the layout, fonts, header, colors etc. using the plain English in the Wordpress administrator’s panel.  It’s a nice, clean design that is easy for the site visitor to read and navigate.  Nothing flashy to get in the way.  With a nice new header from my graphics pro Ven at Banner Junky, I’m all set.

Have you tried Headway or any of the other themes mentioned?  Would enjoy hearing your feedback in the comments below.

There were talks by representatives from several nonprofits about how they are using social media. Here are a few of the insights from those presentations:

• @oxfamamerica says because of the 140 character limit Twitter forces you to use everyday, non-academic language.  It’s fun and engaging and provides a way to get quick feedback.
• Livestrong Lance Armstrong Foundation @Livestrong talked about connecting with people who care about their cause (cancer) worldwide and showed this video.

Beth Kanter @kanter shared best practices with using social media from her own experiences:

• Share stories that tug at the heart.
• The 3 R’s:Relationships, Rewards (acknowledgment) and Reciprocity.
• Small actions online and offline add up to a big difference.

Thoughts from Geoff Livingston @geoffliving:

• Social media use in nonprofits should not be relegated to just one person or department.  It needs top down, full organization support as part of an overall strategy.
• Stakeholders (general public) don’t think about social media accounts as being something different – they associate it with the whole brand. They may not even know the term “social media.” They’re just talking to their friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  
• Share stories about what potential supporters care about, the cause itself and why they personally care.  i.e. Geoff wears about Livestrong because his brother had cancer. Don’t lead with your organization’s name.
• Social media is not just about *getting* things from stakeholders, it’s about *involving* them.

Scott Henderson @scottyhendo

• Focused on a case study from Share Our Strength and food bank drive in Austin for SXSW conference.
• Strategy and planning and matter—there’s a lot of planning to make thing look spontaneous
• After an event (fundraiser, petition drive, etc.) you must show the results. Charity Water @charitywater did a good job of that with the Twestival earlier this year by posting videos of wells being dug.

Tweets about Social Media for Social good: #socialgood

Watch this page for when the replays are posted.

The goal of CauseBlogger.com is to empower nonprofits and everyday heroes to blog about the cause they are passionate about.  I love blogging and have found great joy in writing about some of my own interests, especially over at my personal blog Guiding Vision.

I’ve found that blogging has so many great benefits for a company or nonprofit such as  publicity, developing relationships with supporters and increasing traffic from Google and other search engines.  I have quite a few blog posts in the works that will help cause bloggers from beginning to advanced.   Soon!

Greenpeace has an inspring video, Inspiring Action on Earth Day.

The EPA has had many home produced videos submitted to it’s Earth Day Video Project.

Here’s the Earthday Video Mashup from CTN Green.

Practical tips for saving money with your car and preventing CO2 emissions from Ideal Bite: Under Pressure

Treehuger posts New Definition of Waste Explored in a Webseries (Video).

Mashable posts 5 Inspirational Earth Day Videos.

This one I just think is cool… she makes cheeseboards out of old bottles.  I have a kiln that was given to me, by a really nice lady.  How long has it been sitting in my garage, not fired once? I actually was excited about accepting it for the express purpose of learning how to work with fused glass, not ceramics. This would be a great project for me to start with!

Zane Safrit is a fellow blogger that often writes about health care.  (Here’s a link to many of his healthcare posts.)

Via Zane’s Twitter stream I found this link to a New York Times article.  It reports that Millions With Chronic Disease Get Little to No Treatment because they are among the nation’s growing ranks of uninsured.

I also recently discovered another passionate blogger who’s right in the heart of helping the uninsured. Brenda Hook works at Good Samaritan Clinic in Fort Smith, Arkansas and writes about providing health care for the uninsured on The Samaritan’s Blog.

I’m really excited about learning more from Brenda.  While I know about the health care problem and have had some limited experience with it, she has a lot of direct experience.  Take yesterday’s post for example.  She explains why most unemployed people do not have COBRA.  I have gone through a layoff where the COBRA was totally unaffordable.  Thankfully it was a short period of unemployment and I didn’t get sick.  But I imagine the thousands of families, especially those with chronic conditions, who go unemployed for months, what a stress that would be.

Coincidentally two of the schools that were awarded come from North Carolina.  Four of the honorable mentions come from California.  I didn’t even realize this until typing up the list on the final winners announcement.  With the state of the California economy I don’t suppose it’s surprising.  But we got applications from just about very state in the union.

In North Carolina, “Oklahoma or Arizona, what does it matter” all children should get access to a quality education!