So Facebook is going public.  How will this affect its relationship with its many devotees, which is expected to increase to 1 BILLION later this year?  It’s a bit sad that Convio, not long after going public, agreed to be acquired by its long term competitor, Blackbaud, apparently to take advantage of a financial windfall.  (Also see my recent blog post.)  It will be interesting to watch the path Facebook follows once its loyalties move mostly to its shareholders.

Pinterest seems to be very popular lately.  Have you used it yet?  With all the social media tools available, Small Act (via my friend Shana Masterson) suggests you choose carefully how many you can manage.  (I’m posting regularly on Twitter and Facebook, but less so on LinkedIn and Google Plus so far, trying to find content which is appropriate to each platform.)

After they donate or take the actions you request, do you make sure to thank your donors? Here are some tips from Guidestar and a quiz from Network for Good.

Are you getting good response from your email marketing efforts?  Use these 7 tips for appeals and also 5 Best Practices for Increasing Email Subscribers Engagement.  (And go here if you need help in getting them to sign up to receive your emails.)

Thinking about getting a tablet, such as the iPad or Kindle Fire?  Here’s a good article to read first.

A short time later, your organization decides to open a second office, which has a different business focus than the first location.  But they ask if you can adapt your application for their needs, saying that they would like to go live in a month.  You try to get specific details about what they would like to see in the new system, but everyone is frantically busy and you end up having to make certain assumptions to revise the application for their needs.  But you push forward, and somehow are able to finish by the deadline.  Again, everyone is pleased.  Management again applauds your efforts.

Before you can savor your latest success, the first office asks if you can add some reports to the application which they hadn’t included in the original specifications.  (You had asked about reports, but were told that they would deal with that later.)  When reviewing their request, you realize that much of this information isn’t collected by the application, so you have to go back and revise some screens before creating the new reports.  And because of the tight deadline, you don’t have time to develop a front end interface to run the reports, but you say that’s OK because as the IT person, you can run them when requested.

You roll out the new reports and application changes, but then realize that your edits have broken something that is used by the first office.  So you need to go back and tweak the code a bit more and do more testing so that the application will work properly for both locations.  Due to some personnel changes at both locations, you also realize that you need to schedule user training.  And when they ask for user documentation, you realize that this was not done due to the rush to get things finished.

Eventually, your nonprofit keeps growing, and so does the use of your application was you originally designed for one office.  You keep making modifications, but these changes end up making the code increasingly complex.  (When you hire a new programmer to help you, it takes him months to figure out how everything works.)

Now your small application is in use by over 10 offices, all which use it a bit differently.  You’re now getting many requests for user support, and your tech support team can’t always help because they don’t fully understand how the application works.  When you speak to users from some of the earliest opened offices, you find out that many have established parallel systems in Excel and Access to handle situations that your software can’t accommodate.  Apparently, the business needs of your offices have changed so much that your application will need to be redesigned.

Finally you decide to have a meeting where you invite representatives from all of your offices to discuss what to do next.  Everyone says that their needs are unique and that they should receive special priority.  Many staff seem happy to continue using their personal spreadsheets and databases since it allows them to more easily manipulate and report on their data.  But your research department, which is trying to prepare organization wide reports to show the effectiveness of your work, is increasingly frustrated, saying that the data that they pull from your application is no longer accurate.

What to do next?  My recommendations:

1. Evaluate hosted solutions.  Unless your business need is very unusual, there’s probably something else out there that will meet at least 75% of your needs.
2. Look for the commonality between your offices’ work.  Even if you do end up having to build something yourself, there’s probably much functionality that will work for all.
3. Decide up front what reports will be needed, and in what format.  Give users the ability to manage their own data, otherwise they’ll again be tempted to enter data again in a parallel system.
4. Find out how other nonprofits of your type are handling similar requirements.  You may be able to learn from others’ experiences.
5. Sometimes you will need to say no when you don’t have the time to do the job right, or if you’re not getting the cooperation from stakeholders in defining requirements.  Better to be unpopular in the short run than to be blamed later for a system which doesn’t work as expected.
6. Use agile project management techniques to focus on short term deliverables.  This will allow you to more effectively respond to changing organization needs
7. Provide ongoing training for both new and experienced staff members.  Most systems aren’t easy enough for people to easily ‘figure out’ how they work
8. Get top management support, especially when you have to remind colleagues that not every request for program customizations can be handled.

Blackbaud’s most popular product has long been Raiser’s Edge, which provides unmatched functionality but is also beyond the financial reach of many small to medium nonprofits.  Despite efforts recently to make it more web based, RE is still primarily locally installed.  Of course Blackbaud has bought many other companies over the years which provide web options, such as eTapestry, Kintera, and PIDI, so many that it’s often hard to know how the multiple products all fit together.

In addition to its foundation online marketing platform (now Luminate), Convio took a significant risk by developing Common Ground, a web application built on Salesforce.  While Common Ground offers much less functionality than software like Raiser’s Edge, it offers the strong advantage of being able to connect well with other products due to its Salesforce infrastructure.  (Integration between platforms has been a major issue at every nonprofit I’ve worked for.)

While Blackbaud has been most active in acquisitions, let’s not forget that Convio also bought GetActive – and the transition of GetActive customers to the Convio platform was long and painful.

As many of my colleagues have said this week, it’s hard to know how this acquisition will pan out, and which products will continue to be maintained.  I have friends at both Blackbaud and Convio, and I can only hope that the inevitable personnel shakeup will be handled respectfully.

In my view, this merger may have the effect of reducing competition and innovation, which is always a bad thing.  However, this may also be a wake up call for those organizations who have not discovered the benefits of using open source solutions which are not tied to the fate of a particular vendor.

If you’re on the Progressive Exchange and Nten email lists, I encourage you to read the comments of my colleagues Peter Campbell, Michelle Murrain, Robert Weiner , Allen Gunn on Aspiration Tech and Alyson Kapin’s on Frogloop.  Also see Nten’s take and then join the free Nten conference call this Wednesday to further sort out what is likely to come next.

My favorite takeaways (mentioned in many of these lists):

• Examine how your website and email communications read on mobile phones and tablets.  This is how more of your constituents are accessing your content now
• You don’t have to recreate the wheel.  Our nonprofit colleagues are incredibly generous with their knowledge.  Learn from other people (like Beth Kanter or Nancy Schwartz) and organizations (like Nten and Idealware) that offer multiple resources to help your nonprofit succeed online (and off)
• Learn more about your supporters by analyzing information you probably already have: website statistics, email analytics, registration forms, polls / surveys – then use this data to better segment your communications

But as Kivi said during her webinar that described her recommendations in detail, it’s not enough to just read or listen to these suggestions.  What will you do this month to apply these ideas at your organization?

How a nonprofit is organized can greatly impact its online success.  From mid-2008, here’s Building a Successful Online Team.  In mid-2009, I followed up with a review of Convio‘s study on Why Organization Structure Matters.  Then in early 2011, I offered this Job Description for an Integrated Fundraising / Communications Position.

For more advice on digital strategy, read Tips for Online Success and How to Succeed Online – Even When You Think You Can’t.  It’s always worthwhile to learn from those who are doing it well in Practical Examples of Cross-Channel Success.

Website redesign is often a challenging process.  Here’s some Reasons Why (and Why Not) to Do a Website Redesign, and some additional tips.

Creating great content is key to engaging constituents.  Learn How to Develop Content Your Constituents Will Want to Read, how to Develop a Content Strategy and then What Content to Put in Each Channel.

Most nonprofits need to partner with companies who provide hosted software.  Here’s how to get the most of the relationship in Tips in Selecting and Working With an Online Vendor.

Do you give and attend webinars?  Here’s tips on how to present and how to get the most from participating in online events.

Finally, the hottest topics now are social media and mobile / tablets.  Read Insights into Developing a Social Media Strategy and my take last year on the New World of Mobile.

Thank you again for following my thoughts on the intersection of technology, communications and development for nonprofit organizations.

• A Few Words About Gratitude, on how we can carry the spirit of Thanksgiving throughout the year.  Also see, Thoughts at Thanksgiving on Gratitude
• I’ve often discussed the importance of groups working together within a nonprofit, including facilitation of a panel on Collaboration and Management in Cross-Departmental Web Projects
• I presented an Nten webinar on Project Management for Nonprofits, suggesting that nonprofits use techniques already in use by many for profit organizations
• I asked Who Handles ePhilanthropy in Your Organization, mentioning the trend towards a separate department to develop and implement online strategy  It’s also important to know how what NOT to do online, such as interviewing vendors before you’ve firmed up your requirements.  And here’s why organization structure matters.
• At successful nonprofits, staff are all involved in fundraising and communications, no matter what ‘department’ they are in.  See Why Everyone Is In Communications
• To succeed online, sooner or later we need the help of vendors providing hosted software.  Read my tips on working with an online vendor.
• This year after hearing about Michelle Misner’s wonderful experience at a webmaster group I participate in, I co-presented another Nten webinar on How to NY Public Library Successfully Project Managed a New Drupal Website.  If you’re planning a CMS rollout, whether or not you’re using Drupal, listening to Michelle tips on the recording is a must.

More highlights from past posts next week.  Meanwhile, thank you for reading my thoughts for the past five years.  I wish you a wonderful 2012!

1. Ask some friends (who aren’t familiar with your organization) to critique your nonprofit’s website.  Are they able to quickly understand what you do?  Is it easy to donate or sign up for your email list?
2. Analyze your website analytics, Facebook insights data so you know what’s working best with your constituents.  And don’t forget to segment your audience.  Debra Askanase explains more
3. Go back to the basics – find new ways to build your email list (via Idealware)
4. Encourage your staff’s professional development by supporting their participation in organizations such as Nten, which will have its annual conference in April and sponsors informational webinars and live 501 Tech meetings throughout the US throughout the year.
5. Saying thank you to donors is always an good idea, but it’s also crucial to make sure your staff and volunteers feel appreciated for their hard work.  As my friend Shana Masterson recently tweeted, “You might not be in a position to reward someone (financially), but u can always acknowledge the work they’ve done.”
6. To make your meetings your effective, make sure an agenda goes out to participants in advance and a summary is sent shortly afterwards – it’s a simple project management technique that can insure that everyone’s on the same page
7. Help someone who is in transition.  While unemployment figures seem to be dropping a bit, there are still many people who are struggling.  Reach out to colleagues who need encouragement and support.

Have a healthy and peaceful holiday and a wonderful new year.

This point was driven home a few days later during a webinar by Convio and HJC on How Nonprofits Become Integrated Fundraising Organizations, which offered these tips on how a nonprofit learn to take advantage of the benefits of a multi-channel approach?

1. Getting buy-in from senior management
2. Planning / investing in systems and process to encourage departments to cooperate instead of compete
3. Remove silos from teams and departments so they naturally collaborate towards mutually developed goals

• Americares sent a paper bag with an appeal written on the outside so I didn’t even have to open it to read.  The headline – ‘we filled this bag with words…so you might fill it with medicine.’
• Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation used the more traditional four page letter, but it described the progress of someone who had benefited from the organization’s work and it was interesting enough so I read to the end
• Doctors Without Borders sent a ‘Year in Review,’ describing their work in 5 countries including photos and personal narratives by medical staff
• Mazon described ’8 Myths About Hunger in America,’ compelling me to read all eight to find out what was true and what wasn’t

In the end, I donate to these nonprofits because I believe in the work they do, not in how creative their direct mail materials are.  But with the many solicitations we’re all receiving this month, it definitely makes sense for an organization to find a way to stand out from the crowd.  At least for me, the above nonprofits did a good job in keeping my attention.

My recommendation – if your nonprofit sends direct mail, coordinate it with an online campaign that reinforces the message using website, email marketing and/or social media (and mention the website in the direct mail piece and vice versa). This will help get the attention of others like me who usually toss direct mail solicitations after a quick glance.

In addition to the tips I provided in my earlier blog post, here’s some additional takeaways from yesterday’s session:

• Do a content audit before starting a website redesign;  you probably have more content than you think; allow plenty of time for migration into the new CMS
• Picking the product is easy compared to instilling a culture within your organization so everyone assumes responsibility for online content – if only the communications department has updated web pages in the past, this will be a major shift
• Training is a continual process – not just when you roll out the new system;  Drupal has a steep learning curve, so make sure you allow the time for internal staff to learn the software, especially the person(s) who will be managing the site
• Make sure you coordinate what’s on your website with other communication channels, e.g. social media, and use an editorial calendar to plan content updates on all platforms
• Plan who will be responsible for content updates and then trust your staff to post them; not every piece of content needs to be reviewed before going live, but some parts of your website may need to be more closely monitored than others.  (Drupal does not have a built-in way to notify approvers that content is awaiting review.)