Mapping Online Communications (and fundraising!) How to orient yourself in the landscape of online nonprofit applications. Claire Light seelight@sbcglobal.net
Kinds of Tools Office Productivity Constituent Databases Content Management Systems (CMS) Email/Web Fundraising & Advocacy Constituent Advocacy Social Networking
Office Productivity App bundles that mimic or replace traditional office software: Google Apps, YahooGroups Intranet/Workflow programs: Basecamp, Central Desktop, Trac Project management File sharing Content Editing Discussion/documentation Wikis (also belong in social networking and content management)
Why Use Office Productivity Tools? If you don t have an IT person or enough resources to manage a computer network at your office If your staff or working board are geographically dispersed, or if you have no office
Constituent Databases Fundraising Databases: Salesforce, CiviCRM, etapestry, DonorPerfect, etc. CRM (Customer relationship management) = the commercial sector version Intersects with tools: Online Donor pages Email programs Mailing list signups
Why Use Constituent Databases? If you need to upgrade your database and you find you can get more bang for your buck online If you need to upgrade your database but don t have an IT person in-house to manage the DB If your personnel are geographically dispersed, or you don t have an office or computer system
Content Management Systems Easy (ish) systems for getting words, pictures, and other content up on your website, w/o having to code it yourself: Drupal, Joomla, WordPress Often comes in bundles with other nonprofit tools: Democracy in Action Papilia Z2 Neon
Why learn Content Management Systems? I.e.: When do you need to learn CMS, not when do you need to have CMS; your webmaster may have already installed a popular platform If you intend to add, update, or change your website content fairly regularly If your website was not designed or implemented in-house and you need to control it (which you do) If you intend to implement other tools on your website that integrate with a particular CMS platorm
Email/Web Fundraising & Advocacy Bulk email services Group/list-serv: Googlegroups, Yahoogroups, Topica Mass emailing tools: VerticleResponse, EmailNow (Network for Good), Constant Contact, MailChimp Bundles (see also CMS and DBs): Democracy in Action, etapestry, Z2 Neon, MemberClicks, Convio, Kintera
Email/Web Fundraising & Advocacy Website Donation Systems Donor Transaction Services (just the donation, ma am): Groundspring, Paypal, EmailNow (Network for Good) General Online Transactions (event reg, product sales, membership dues, etc.): AuctionPay, GiftTool, Contribute, CharityWeb Personalized content ( MyOrg pages where users have an account on your website): Papilia, Kintera, Convio Bundles (includes donation, email, CMS, DB, etc.): MemberClicks, etapestry, Democracy in Action, Papilia, Kintera, Blackbaud NetCommunity, Contribute.com Donor Networking (connects donors with nonprofits/social entrepreneurs): Idealist, Blackbaud Nonprofit Central, Make the Difference Network, GlobalGiving, Online Shops: Zazzle, CafePress
Why Use Email/Web Fundraising & Advocacy? Bulk Email: no ifs, you should do it Website Donor Transaction Service: no ifs, you should do it Other online transactions: if event registration, membership dues, etc. have reached a volume that requires more sophisticated tools and if you have a database that can interface with these tools relatively easily (see bundles) and if your constituency uses the internet to buy tickets or donate money, etc. Bundles: if your staff/budget can support a staff member to manage these applications and if your staff has the time to be trained in new applications and to adjust their habits to its use and if your constituency uses the internet in applicable ways Or if your constituents are making demands of your website that the website can t meet (Ask them: Survey Monkey) Personalized content: Only if your org is capable of producing regular new content, like white papers, research, articles, multimedia, blogging
Constituent Advocacy a.k.a. Friend-to-Friend Fundraising Constituents conduct personal campaigns on behalf of org Individualized fundraising pages Fundraising Widgets (badges, thermometers) Apps: Firstgiving, Facebook Causes, Six Degrees, ChipIn, Charity Badges (Network for Good)
Why Use Constituent Advocacy? If you have active constituents and/or clients If you have constituents/clients with blogs or sites with updating content; or if they are active on social networking sites If your programming engages your clients in events or special activities that can be leveraged for personal campaigns (run/walk/bike for disease, competition, arts events, program activity with an end date and a product goal) If you have fundraising events that allow your constituents and clients to actively engage in promotion (galas, competitions, trips, etc.)
Social Networking: Purposes Interactive, multilateral communication, dynamic Conversation, mundane communication Debate Storytelling Information Sharing Connecting/Networking people and organizations Entertainment
Social Networking: Types Discussion: Groups, list-servs (Yahoo, Google) Social Network Service: Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Bebo Social Network Platforms: Ning, Kickapps, CollectiveX, etc. Microblogging: Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Blogging: WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, LiveJournal Podcasting: itunes, Zune, Juice, Winamp Photo sharing: Flickr, Photo Bucket, etc. Video Sharing: YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Why Use Social Networking? If you or core staff members are already engaging in social networking on your own (no interns!) If you or core staff members are natural communicators or informationsharers (e.g.: if you are comfortable speaking for five minutes into a digital recorder once a week, then start a podcast) If your organization has a robust topical advocacy and/or research arm; social networking apps can give you powerful tools to disseminate your message and form debate If your clients/constituents are active social networking users; especially if they have requested that you join a social networking service that they use (ask them!: SurveyMonkey, esurveyspro, Zoomerang, etc.) If you have a backlog of media documentation of your programming that no one is doing anything with: put your videos on YouTube, put your photos on Flickr, etc. (a project for interns!)
How You Connect Prospects Constituent Databases Constituent Advocacy Social Networkin g Constituency: Donors, Participants, Clients Personnel: Staff, Board, Volunteers Office Productivity Efundraising/ Advocacy You Are Here
How Constituents Connect Prospect Org email Friend s email Website referral Social Networking Referral Donations/ mailing list signup ORG WEBSITE Blog/ SNS/Content Org/Program info Info into database Enters cultivation cycle Attends event
Wrong and Right Questions WRONG! RIGHT! How can I use this cool tool? What tools do we need? How can we get to rich people online? How does our constituency use the internet? (Ask them!) How can we adjust our programming to make it internet friendly? Are there any tools that are designed to fit in with our types of programs? (Yes!) How can we find personnel to manage this application? What applications best fit in with our institutional culture?
Resources Idealware articles: http://www.idealware.org/ Tech Soup articles: http://www.techsoup.org/ Compass Point: http://www.compasspoint.org Look particularly at The E-Nonprofit on their articles page Craigslist Foundation podcasts: http://craigslistfoundation.org/podcast.html Network for Good Learning Center: http://www.fundraising123.org/ Beth Canter nonprof social netwking: http://beth.typepad.com/ NTen.org research/webinars: http://nten.org/ Pew Internet and American Life Project research: http://www.pewinternet.org/ Wikipedia: will have definitions of, listings of, and links to applications in each category, if you need to get basic with it