studio 501c

nonprofits, especially web newbies, shouldn't miss this free webinar series on storytelling and social media

There is a lot of stuff on the web about social media for nonprofits, but it's so dispersed that it can be hard for a beginner to know where to start.

This free five-part webinar series on storytelling and social media from TechSoup Global and NTEN looks like an excellent introduction for beginners as well as a great resource for those who are more advanced.  Plus, it integrates storytelling, the proven technique for communicating.  You must sign up for each session individually:

Part 1: Building Blocks (1/21/2009, 11am PT) Amy Sample Ward
Part 2: Podcasting (1/28/2009, 11am PT) Corey Pudhorodsky
Part 3: Video Creation (2/4/2009, 11am PT) Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson
Part 4: Creating Social Buzz (2/11/2009, 11am PT) Danielle Brigida
Part 5: Social Media ROI (2/18/2009, 11am PT) Beth Kanter

(Thanks to Joe Solomon and Chad Norman for alerting me to this webinar via Twitter, the microblogging service. And thanks to Many Cats 4 Me for permission to use this photo via a Creative Commons license.)

nonprofits, nota bene: Clicking on any of the above-linked names will connect you to some of the smartest minds in using the Web to advance your cause.  And if you don't know about NTEN or TechSoup Global, check them out, too, and sign up for their updates and services.

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take note of these clear and quick explanations on how to use rss and wikis

Thanks to Dissident, a delightful blog discovery, I've also discovered the Common Craft Show and two video presentations -- the best I've ever seen for newbies on using RSS and Wikis.  They're also quite amusing.

Click To Play RSS in Plain English by Common Craft


 

Click To Play Wikis in Plain English by Common Craft

nonprofits, nota bene: If you want tools to improve productivity, learning, and internal communication (including communication with volunteers), run, don't walk, to share these presentations with your colleagues.  Also consider a subscription to the Common Craft blog.  This couple knows how to teach.

 

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swipe this: check out the sites and practices of these web-savvy nonprofits

Having been on hiatus, I thought I would jump back in with an easy post: This list of the 59 Smartest Orgs Online from Squidoo.com, Net2, and GetActive is a great one to explore.  See what nonprofit marketing expert Nancy Schwartz has to say about it.  She likes the list and reminds us that "whether any or all of these strategies are right for your organization depends on your marketing goals, and other communications strategies in play."

nonprofits, nota bene: If you're interested in using the web more effectively, ask different staffers or volunteers to each review a few sites and to report back to the group on their findings.  Make sure to examine the sites of those with missions that are close to yours as well as a few that aren't.  If you have a narrow goal, e.g., improving your online donation capacity, concentrate on what the different nonprofits are doing in that area.

P.S.  Very interesting that Barack Obama decided to announce his presidential exploratory committee via the web yesterday.  It was a great way to get a very personal message (as compared, say, to a press conference announcement) out to millions and millions of people.  That video, which features Obama speaking directly to the camera in a home setting, has been featured on major news sites and blogs around the world.

nonprofits can use microsoft word templates for better design, communication

The popular Lifehacker productivity blog asked its readers to help Elyse, who works "for an earnest, mission-driven, do-good non-profit organization that, despite the high quality of our project work, has little time or expertise to devote to details such as aesthetics, formatting, and design"  and who is looking for "tried and true design tips to easily spruce up a document and make it more eye-appealing."

I've long been a fan of designer Chuck Green, who created these wonderful Word templates -- for everything from reports to ads to brochures to certificates -- for OKI Printing Solutions.

Another designer produced these, based on Chuck's work.  (Be sure to page down to the marketing materials to find the report template.)

nonprofits, nota bene: After you've reviewed the Microsoft Word design tips that other Lifehacker readers shared with Elyse (through the link above), check out Chuck Green's Ideabook.com and Jumpola.com, and be sure to sign up for the free newsletters he offers on both sites.  Chuck's advice and articles are fun, inspiring, and informative, and much of his guidance, especially the stuff on Ideabook, is geared to non-designers.  In fact, Ideabook is a studio 501c smart pick!   

nonprofit makes it easy to donate, offset carbon emissions anywhere, any time via text messaging

From Springwise, a new favorite, I learned of a wise move from the World Land Trust, which is allowing consumers to use text messaging to donate small amounts to offset carbon emissions: "Every time a consumer texts 'WLT CARBON' to number 87050 (within the UK), World Land Trust will offset 140 kilograms of CO2 through its Carbon Balanced Program. The program regenerates rainforest, which not only helps remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but also provides habitat for endangered species....Users can create accounts that keep track of their sms donations." The cost to the consumer, on top of regular texting charges, is 1.5 GBP or $2.84 U.S. dollars.

Says the World Land Trust, on a page about the offsets, "We want to make it as easy to offset unavoidable emissions as we can, which is why we have created an sms service to provide offsets by using a mobile phone. So whether it is flight to Paris, a birthday party or a weekend away, now you can offset emissions anywhere and anytime."

I don't know much about text-messaging fundraising, but this campaign seems a bit different from efforts to raise money through SMS for victims of the tsunami, Katrina, and 9/11. Those campaigns offered a great convenience to donors wanting to respond immediately to a sudden disaster. This one is positioning itself as a long-term campaign to encourage regular giving of small amounts as consumers become increasingly mindful of the effect of their activities on the environment.

If you have ideas about other circumstances in which text-messaging campaigns would be appropriate or if you know of successful campaigns, please share your thoughts in the comments section.

nonprofit marketing with YouTube, MySpace, and more

The npMarketing Blog recently published a great overview of how the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) uses Web services such as YouTube (online video), MySpace (online community popular with young people), and Frappr (online mapping) to promote its cause. Mark Sirkin, the blogger, calls these sites "fourth places" -- "virtual places online that are their own, self-sustained communities that we want to reach out to and partner with." Mark, a "must read" for nonprofit types interested in web communications and relationship building, directs online marketing for LLS.

Technorati tags: net2 nonprofit nptech social sector NGO MySpace YouTube Frappr leukemia lymphoma LLS web2.0 fourthplacemarketing fourthplace nonprofitmarketing

choosing web tools and software? start at Idealware.org

As nonprofits adopt more web-based tools and software for building relationships with their stakeholders, many are understandably perplexed by which brands to choose.

Raiser's Edge or salesforce.com for a constituent database? Constant Contact or Google Groups for email communication? eTapestry or Auctionpay for accepting online donations? These are important decisions with great implications for how the staff spends its time and budget.

Thank goodness that www.Idealware.org has arrived. To quote the site, "Idealware provides candid Consumer-Reports-style reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits....Through product comparisons, recommendations, case studies, and software news, Idealware allows nonprofits to make the software decisions that will help them be more effective."

This objective and intelligent resource was sorely needed in the land of 501c's. A nonprofit itself, Idealware was founded in the fall of 2005 by Laura Quinn, who has a strong background in nonprofit Web strategies and software, and she's recruited stellar advisors and board members to help her out.

Some of the articles and reports to date include online petition tools, membership and constituent databases, online donation tools, and content management systems. The monthly newsletter is a great way to keep up with the latest reviews.

Technorati tags: net2 salesforce salesforce.com nonprofit software nptech tools fundraising email databases web2.0

a great place for nonprofit bloggers to begin: Netsquared

For an introduction to the hows and whys of nonprofit blogging, you can do no better than this "Resource Center" from Netsquared, called, well, Blogging for Nonprofits.  Netsquared is a Web site -- really a community -- that focuses on helping people use the Web to increase impact and effect social change.   Netsquared Resource Centers were just introduced.  They are collections of useful information about particular topics, e.g., online public relations, blogging, etc. that are created by volunteer contributors.  (I just joined the Resource Center for nonprofit blogging.)

Technorati tags: net2 nonprofit blogging nptech social sector NGO philanthropy

email sigs as marketing, and other smart advice for nonprofits

I don't know Nancy Schwartz, but her advice on communications for nonprofits is smart, succinct, and important. Reading her articles could be considered a crash course in nonprofit marketing communications. Take, for example, this article about a free and underused marketing opportunity, e-mail signatures. Employees can convey key messages about your mission, programs, and events through consistent signature formats and regularly updated and hyperlinked taglines.

In this age of information overwhelm, I am picky about recommending subscriptions, but I highly recommend her newsletter, Getting Attention.

Technorati tags: net2 nptech signatures

welcome to studio 501c

This is a resource for ordinary people doing extraordinary things -- social entrepreneurs and nonprofit staff and volunteers, i.e., those who work hard every day to make positive change.  I'm a nonprofit professional, too, and I'm interested in the ways that the Internet, personal technology, and other tools can help advance the goals of those in the social sector (which, by my definition, encompasses the nonprofit sector, but also goes beyond it to include those in the private and public sectors who are pursuing social innovation). 

As a result of my interests in personal tech and communications, I often find myself telling friends and colleagues about a Web site for tracking down the address of a prospective donor, or an easy way they can keep up with the issues their nonprofit addresses or a free Web-based calendar, task, and contact management application that can help individuals and teams be more productive.   I hope to do the same thing with this blog -- to share information and tips from time to time that will help people accomplish their social-change goals more effectively.

I won't pretend to be definitive or even authoritative.  In fact, much of the advice here will be pretty basic, as I find that even many brilliant leaders in the social sector know little about RSS, blogs as communications tools for nonprofits, or all that Google can do for them!  (Watch for more info on these tools in future posts.)

I'll just share what has worked for me, as well as what others with far more knowledge and experience are recommending.  I plan to review what experts in personal tech, life hacks, productivity, cool tools, and nonprofit tech are publishing, and then share the best of it here, adding ideas for how nontechies in in the social sector can apply the tips to their particular concerns. In that sense, I hope studio 501c will be a time-saving filter blog.

I also hope that it will offer a practical perspective to current discussions on how nonprofits can use the Internet and technology to further their missions.  These discussions, though well intended, sometimes become unrealistic, especially when they involve nonprofit techies talking with other nonprofit techies.  With studio 501c, I'll aim to address the everyday concerns of nontechies in nonprofits and other social-sector organizations.

I hope that you can help with this effort.  Please post your ideas, advice, and experience in the comments section of this blog so that we can all learn from each other.

Cheers,
Celeste W

Technorati tags: net2 blogging nonprofit NGO nonprofit blogging marketing nptech fundraising social sector social entrepreneur AirSet ZabaSearch small business studio 501c nontechie nontechie