The Twitter feeds are starting to run hot with requests for Followers to vote for the various sites nominated for the 2009 People’s Choice Website of the Year Awards, with the full line-up of shortlisted nonprofits looking like this:

• rednoseday.com
• ifaw.org
• unicef.org.uk
• redcross.org.uk
• bhf.org.uk
• nspcc.org.uk
• savethechildren.org.uk
• cancerresearchuk.org
• amnesty.org.uk
• spcai.org
• wwf.org.uk
• greenpeace.org.uk
• diabetes.org.uk
• oxfam.org.uk
• justgiving.com

2009 markes the sixth time these awards have been organised by online research agency MetrixLab and they are apparently the  “largest annual ‘people’s choice’ website awards” around, with members of the public ranking the sites based on ‘design’, ‘navigation’, and ‘content’.

Awards aside, it’s also interesting from a general online engagement perspective to browse the shortlisted sites to see just what the different organisations are doing to make their websites especially attractive to online consumers.

Unfortunately, what is most striking is that so many of the landing pages deluge you with so much information and so many calls to action that you end-up with an engagement opportunity overload likely to lead to option paralysis for all but the most focused visitor. I’m not going to name and shame the worst offenders – as I’m sure you’ll spot them if you have a browse.

However, there are some noteable exceptions. British Heart Foundation goes for a cleaner approach, with clear integration with its current advertising campaign and iPhone-like buttons for “quick links”. Likewise, WWF’s homepage goes for simple clarity from the outset – with a wonderfully striking close-up of a Tiger staring out at me and then two columns entitled “We do…” and “You can…”, alongside four clear engagement buttons.

Greenpeace’s blog-style landing page with calls to action in the sidebar also works for me, helping me focus on the key things they want to tell me about the UN Climate Summit (including a great embedded YouTube video) while still making clear the range of personal responses I can make.

Voting in the awards is open until 8th December and the winners will be announced on 15th December.

If you are reading this now, then of the world’s 6.8 billion people, you are likely one of the lucky ones. You have Internet access, a computer, a roof over your head, and likely planning some holiday shopping this year. By spending consciously, your consumer power can change the world.

Did you know that in the United States more than 70% of holiday gifts end up in the landfill within 6 months? Much of those are plastic toys that will remain on this Earth for hundreds of generations. Is that a legacy we want to leave behind? Your money really could be much better spent.

Below are 11 great holiday gift programs that benefit nonprofits and make the world a better place:

1. Oxfam America Unwrapped: Unique charitable gifts that do good. Gifts range from $12 to $10,000. You’ll receive a free card with the image of your specific gift. You can personalize the card online and have it sent directly to your friend or loved one. Or you can have the card delivered to you to write your own message. View Gifts. [In the UK]

2. Species Adoptions from the World Wildlife Fund: Give a gift that helps protect life on Earth. Adoption Kits range from $25 to $250. All kits include an adoption certificate, photo, and species information card. With a $50 donation, the kit includes a plush toy. These make great gifts for kids and people that love animals. View Gifts.

3. Hope Gift Book from St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital: Get into the holiday spirit with ornaments, decorations and other gifts that inspire hope and help fight childhood cancer. 100% of profits after related expenses benefit the children at St. Jude. View Gifts.

4. NPR Shop: Ideal for the people in your life who are fans of NPR, every purchase supports NPR programming. View Gifts.

5. Gifts of Hope by Heifer International: Choose a meaningful gift to give a loved one and help children and families around the world receive training and animal gifts that help them become self-reliant. Gifts range from a flock of chicks for $20 to a heifer for $500. View Gifts.

6. Global Exchange Fair Trade Store: With beautiful gifts fairly traded from producers all over the world, the Global Exchange Store is the online source for socially responsible goods. View Gifts.

7. Defenders Marketplace: Show your love of wildlife  and help fund effective programs that save endangered wildlife and its habitats for future generations to enjoy. From ornaments to stamps to wildlife adoption, the Defenders Marketplace is a good place to start your holiday shopping. View Gifts.

8. Save the Children Gift Shop: Give the gift that gives twice. Buy a gift for family or friends and help Save the Children at the same time. View Gifts.

9. Global Goods Partners Fair Trade Gift Shop: Shop for change! The gifts that you give and the items in your daily life all provide an opportunity to contribute to a movement for global justice, be it the paper you write on or the bag in which you carry your groceries. Beautiful gifts, great cause! View Gifts.

10. ShopKomen.com: Purchase with a purpose to help end breast cancer forever. 25% of your merchandise purchase price will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure. View Gifts.

11. ASPCA Store: Help the ASPCA provide refuge to the million of unwanted pets in America by purchasing holiday gifts for the animal lovers in your life from the ASPCA Store. View Gifts.

I know there are many others. Please feel free to post them (with a link) in a comment below. Thank you. Happy holidays, and happy shopping!

I’ve had a manic few weeks since mid October, mostly related to my starting-up my own Marketing and Fundraising Consultancy (called Strategy Refresh – do take a look when you have a spare moment) with a bit of house moving thrown-in for good measure. All of which means that things have been very quiet on the Giving in a Digital World Front – so apologies for that. Normal service is close to being resumed as I’m starting to get into the swing of working as an independent consultant.

One think I’ve been meaning to post about but have only now had the opportunity to get to was the great response to the presentation Jonathan Waddingham from JustGiving and I gave at the International Fundraising Congress over in Holland last month. It was all about ‘The new breed of digital donor‘ and sparked all sorts of post presentation discussions – both online and offline – which was great. You can see the full presentation in the Slideshare embed below.

One part of the presentation that got a lot of folks interested was the story of the 93 Dollar Club – so I thought it worth repeating that here for anyone who hasn’t come across it before (you can see more about it in the presentation).

The 93 Dollar Club all began back in August this year through a chance meeting and act of personal kindness in a Trader Joes grocery store. Jenni Ware was shopping there when she realised that she had forgotten her purse. Fortunately, next in the line was Carolee Hazard who, on seeing Jenni’s situation, kindly offered to cover her $207 bill. Jenni gratefully accepted and as the two left the store she reassured Carolee that she would mail her a cheque later that day. However, as Carolee drove away she couldn’t help wondering if she would ever actually see her $207 again. Being an active Facebook user, on arriving home she shared the story with her online network of Friends and they started to add to it, reassuring her that she had done a good thing and that it was sure to be repaid.

And so it was – with a check arriving not just for $207 but for $300, including a $93 ‘thank you’ gift. Carolee was surprised by this and at first intended to return the $93. However her Facebook Friends, who were by now an active part of this story, proposed she donate it to a non-profit instead. They even suggested which – the local Second Harvest Food Bank. Carolee liked this idea so much that she decided to match the $93 windfall donation with $93 of her own. Then, as is the way with social networks, her Facebook Friends agreed to follow-suite and by the next morning they had together collected over $1,000.

Encouraged by this, Carolee set-up a Facebook Page – entitled the 93 Dollar Club – and so the story continued, not just on Facebook but being picked-up and given massively greater reach by traditional news media too. Indeed, so much did the story grow that if you take a look at Carolee’s 93 Dollar Club page today you’ll see that the total raised has now gone from $93 to over $23,000 – and they’ve now set themselves a target of $93,000!

Do take a moment to visit the 93 Dollar Club Facebook page. On it you’ll see contributions from an incredibly vibrant community of donors, sharing ideas for fundraising and plans to expand the whole 93 Dollar Club concept to help achieve their great $93,000 target. A true community, focused on fundraising yet entirely inspired and organised by the donors themselves – a fantastic example of just what the new breed of digital donors can achieve when they get to grips with doing it for themselves.

© Rainer Sturm; Pixelio

Der Wunsch, mit Hilfe des Social Web zusätzliche Einnahmen zu generieren ist naheliegend. Man erreicht dank des Multiplikatoreffekts eine Vielzahl von Menschen, die sich dann hoffentlich für einen interessieren und entweder die angebotenen Produkte erwerben, die Veranstaltungen besuchen oder einem auf Spendenbasis Geld zukommen lassen.

Während der einfache Hinweis auf ein Produkt oder eine Veranstaltung häufig genügt, um jemanden zum Kauf oder Besuch zu bewegen, ist die Herausforderung, jemanden zum Spender werden zu lassen, eine ungleich größere.

Und noch größer ist die Herausforderung, wenn es darum geht, Online-Fundraising zu betreiben. Während es in verschiedenen NPO-Bereichen durchaus schon Beispiele gab, die zeigen, dass Online-Fundraising funktionieren kann, vor allem im angelsächsischen Raum, schaut es bei uns im Kunst- und Kulturbereich noch eher traurig aus.

Die Gründe dafür sind nicht neu. Einerseits ist die Finanzierung von Kunst und Kultur dem allgemeinen Verständnis nach Sache des Staates. Andererseits beginnt sich die Akzeptanz, Geld online zu überweisen, erst so allmählich herauszubilden und drittens sind die Transaktionskosten vor allem wenn es um kleine und kleinste Beträge geht, einfach noch zu hoch.

Nun kann man daraus verschiedene Schlüsse ziehen. Wer die genannten Hürden – und vielleicht noch weitere – in den Vordergrund stellt, wird wahrscheinlich zu dem Ergebnis kommen, dass sich Online-Fundraising nicht lohnt und wird in dieser Hinsicht nicht aktiv. Oder man geht davon aus, dass der Zug irgendwann einmal ins Rollen kommt und versucht möglichst bald Position zu beziehen, um dann gerüstet zu sein.

Eigentlich ist die Ausgangssituation für den letzteren Ansatz ideal, denn der Weg von einem Facebookprofil zum ersten eingenommenen Fundraising-Euro ist ein weiter. Wenn es heute auf dieser Basis noch nichts zu verdienen gibt, dann lohnt es sich trotzdem, eine entsprechende Community aufzubauen. Schließlich steht nirgendwo geschrieben, dass es einem erst jemand vormachen muss. Warum sollen nicht Sie die oder der erste sein, der/dem es gelingt, im Social Web erfolgreiches Fundraising zu betreiben?

Sehr hilfreich in dieser Hinsicht ist das Blogpost “The Right Way to use Social Media for Fundraising: Wildlife Direct” von Beth Kanter. In ihm listet sie einige Punkte auf, die ihrer Meinung nach für Fundraising-Aktivitäten im Social Web wichtig sind. Zwei Punkte möchte ich dabei herausgreifen:

• “Build your network before you need it.  Don’t have your first interaction be a request for money.
• Focus on engagement and relationship building all the time.  You don’t have to be doing it at hyper level at the time, but remember relationship building doesn’t have an on and off switch.”

Ihre Anmerkungen erinnern mich an Chris Brogans Beitrag “Audience or Community“, in dem er die Unterschiede zwischen  Publikum und Community sehr schön herausarbeitet.

“Community happens when people feel they’re among like-minded others and when they feel their contributions matter”,

schreibt Chris Brogan. Wie so etwas dann in der Praxis aussieht, erfährt man in Beth Kanters Beitrag am Beispiel von WildLifeDirect. Aus der Community heraus entstand innerhalb kurzer Zeit eine Vielzahl von Weblogs, über die Spenden lukriert werden konnten. Das heißt, nicht die Tierschutzorganisation alleine sammelt Geld, sondern es ist die Community, die sich engagiert und zum Spenden animiert.

Aber so etwas braucht Zeit. “Community happens” schreibt Brogan, d.h. Sie können nur für die geeigneten Rahmenbedingungen sorgen, der Rest geschieht dann “von alleine”.

Recent studies have revealed that the vast majority of nonprofits do not know how to measure ROI (Return on Investment) from utilizing social media. Below are 5 simple, low-cost ways nonprofits can measure ROI with a minimal time investment of only a couple of hours a month.

1. Monitor your website traffic.

During the Era of Web 1.0, nonprofits were very keen on increasing website traffic. They spent relatively large amounts of cash on SEO and invested many hours is getting listed on portals. E-mail marketing took off and promotional materials were loaded with plugs to “Visit our website!”. Website traffic was the number one indicator to measure ROI.

Today, I think most nonprofits that are not monitoring traffic would be surprised by how little traffic their website is actually getting. Of those that are monitoring their traffic, many are not aware that “Unique Visitors” is the number to watch and that “Hits” are meaningless. Those that are not monitoring traffic are just completely in the dark about the effectiveness of their web campaigns.

Every website out there has stats to monitor. How many unique visitors by day, month, year? Exactly what pages are visitors viewing? How long are they on your website? What websites were your visitors on right before they visited your site [Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace]? Every nonprofit should be monitoring this data.

Furthermore, if your traffic has not increased significantly from social media, then you are doing something wrong. Are you correctly using the “Links” and “Static FBML” Apps on Facebook? Are you putting a “http://” in front of all website links in Facebook Updates? Are you building community on Twitter or just pushing out press releases and blog posts [that in time people start to ignore]? Do you have an account on Bit.ly to make sure that the links you are posting are actually interesting to your Twitter community? If not, you may be surprised what people click and what they don’t. Having an account on Bit.ly is a must to Tweet successfully!

On average, my website gets about 5,000 unique visitors a month. Nonprofit Tech 2.0 averages about 15,000 (WOW). And it’s not “empty traffic”. It’s traffic that leads to new clients and new Webinars attendees. If it wasn’t for social media, I’d be getting less than 1,000 and entirely dependent on my e-newsletter, referrals, and search engine results. So, I think this poll is very telling:

POLL: Is your nonprofit monitoring your Website stats to see how much traffic is coming from Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn Groups, etc.?

Most nonprofits are not even monitoring stats. Those that are monitoring stats are split on whether social media has increased website traffic. If you are not getting traffic, then your mission and programs just might not be sexy enough for social media (for lack of a better word), and it may be time to re-evaluate.

Or, and in my experience, those that are not getting much traffic from social media need some training. A bit harsh, but true. Overconfidence in one’s social media skills can be a problem when it comes to social media ROI. Even the most self-proclaimed social media maven, expert, guru, miracle worker, etc. could use training from time to time. Me included. Good social media training is essential.

On a final note, many nonprofits will be launching mobile websites in 2010, and much of the traffic on those sites will be going to or from social networking sites. Social media has gone mobile and that will be an entirely new set of data to monitor and track.

2. Poll your donors.

Another very telling poll:

POLL: Does your nonprofit poll your online donors about what communication tool inspired them most to donate on your Website?

81% answered no. 81%! You can’t judge your social media fundraising success from how much has been donated to your Facebook Cause or a fundraising widget. It’s pretty clear that online donors do not yet trust these new tools, and why would they when more than half of fundraising Causes and widgets have a great big $0 on them? [Donate to your own Cause and widgets to get the ball rolling!]

My guess is that we will be pleasantly surprised that many online donors that are following you on Twitter or Facebook will indeed go to make a donation on your website during the year-end fundraising season. I know my giving has changed dramatically. I now give to smaller nonprofits I never heard of 2 years ago. I watch them on social media sites, and then when I have the cash to give, I go to their website or donate to them on Change.org. Not only do 40% of folks fan brands on Facebook, but 34% of those folks then go visit their website before purcahsing or donating. And yet, as many as 81% of nonprofits are not tracking this behavior!

So, how about after someone makes a donation on your website, you ask them on the next page to answer a poll about what message prompted them to donate and where did they read it? End-of-Year print appeal, e-newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linkedn, YouTube?

3. Ask people to subscribe to your email newsletter and mobile lists.

Just having an e-mail newsletter and mobile list sign up box on your Facebook Page or MySpace does not work. You have to ask people to subscribe. Post a Tweet or a Status Update:

Text NONPROFITORGS to 41411 to receive text alerts (2-3 monthly) from Nonprofit Tech 2.0!

Sending out my Web 2.0 Best Practices e-Newsletter on Wednesday. To receive a copy, please subscribe: http://bit.ly/2VeW7A

Over the years I have been consistently surprised by how many people will subscribe once asked on a social media site, but not until I asked. I have tabled a number of events over the years asking people to sign up for e-mail newsletters. The number of subscribers I get from social media trumps tabling any day of the week.

4. Ask people to become volunteers.

The study listed above argues that social media is worthless to small and medium sized nonprofits because they aren’t getting any donations or new volunteers from social media campaigns. The flaw in fundraising ROI I have already discussed. Personally, I have a hard time believing that nonprofits are not getting volunteers from social media campaigning. I get asked at least once a week by random strangers if they can volunteer for me. So, I know potential volunteers are out there.

Are you asking that they volunteer for your organization correctly? Make sure you are using social media to ask, to call out for volunteers. Don’t just assume they are going to click on a “Volunteer!” link on your Facebook Page and then ask to be signed up. You have to ask them. Do you have volunteer testimonials on your website? Are you mentioning that your organization would be good a good reference? Are you pitching the social aspect of volunteering with your organization (meet new friends online and offline)? Are you giving them good reason to want to volunteer with your organization on your website, and then using social media sites correctly to drive them to that page?

Now that I think of it, in four years of using social media 40-60 hours a week… I never seen one nonprofit message me on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace asking me to become a volunteer. Something to ponder.

5. Plot fans, followers, friends, subscribers.

I think 1-4 are much more important than this, but plotting your fans, followers and friends on an Excel spreadsheet will at least give you a sense of how quickly or slowly your social media communities are growing. Create a spreadsheet. On the far left column list the social media sites you are using, and then create 12 columns on the right… one for each month of the year. Then on the first day of every month post the number of current friends, followers, fans, and subscribers. Combine this with monitoring your website and e-mail/mobile sign up stats, how your online donors and volunteers found you, then you are well on your way to successfully measuring your social media ROI.

One final note. I give social media webinars that focus on detailed, How To… not just big picture “Social media is great!” webinars. My primary audience is small to medium sized nonprofits, and my goal is to make sure they know how to use social media beyond the obvious [90% of nonprofit social media campaigns that I see are not operating beyond the obvious].  The New Organizing Institute and NTEN also give webinars on social media. I have never taken one from them, but they both have a good reputation.

That said, I have taken a number of social media webinars and the vast majority are really big picture, based on case studies of large national and international nonprofits with massive resources [even worse, the Obama Campaign!]. Completely not relevant to small and medium sized nonprofits. When it comes to training, just because you take one webinar and you don’t get much from it, don’t think that they are all the same. They are not. Seriously. I haven’t really said this much before because I didn’t want to appear as self-serving, but good social media training is essential, particularly for small to medium sized nonprofits on a budget. Without it, many nonprofits will be disappointed by lackluster results.

POLL: Have you ever taken a webinar about how to use social media?

Last week Causes announced they would no longer expend the resources necessary to be compatible with MySpace.  This is not surprising.  MySpace is shrinking every day and seems on a track to become at best a dating and music web site, so I find it hard to believe that institutions will be disadvantaged by the absence of Causes on MySpace.

Most internet donations are the result of well-thought out email campaigns.  Social networks are excellent as supplementary tools – but the network itself, whether it’s MySpace or Facebook, is less important than the communication it serves. Direct solicitation (literally a friend asking another friend, “Will you join me in supporting XYZ-cause?”) is the most effective way to generate donations.

The best way for your institution to thrive in any social network is to (1) provide the right format that allows grassroots actions to take place, and (2) stoke the fire by getting your most supportive volunteers and alums to fill the void with their voices.  If you do this, you will accumulate momentum and capital among your closest supporters and you won’t be at the mercy of a vendor like Causes.  The platform is always secondary to the actions taken by you and your supporters.

Since the popular Facebook fundraising App Causes was built using GuideStar’s database of nonprofits in the United States and Canada, only nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada can utilize Causes’ fundraising tools. There are some amazing nonprofits at the grassroots working miracles daily with relatively small amounts of cash, but unfortunately, since no international database of verified nonprofits exists, these nonprofits are consistently unable to utilize most online fundraising tools. Not any anymore… thanks to Ammado.com.

Based in Dublin, Ireland, Ammado is a social network just like Facebook or MySpace, but whose primary focus is to empower people and nonprofits worldwide to fundraise and donate online. In addition to online donation capabilities, they offer giving circles, giving vouchers, and Facebook widgets. Considering that 70% Facebooks users are outside of the United States and that most of its growth is occuring internationally, Ammado’s timing is very good.

That said, nonprofit’s inside the United States and Canada can use Ammado too. One obvious advantage that Ammado has over Causes and most online donation processors, is that it accepts and distributes donations (via wire transfer) in 31 currencies (!!). As the world goes global, so does charitable giving.

Therefore, how nonprofits worldwide can get started on Ammado:

1) Nonprofits that want to use Ammado must read and agree to their Nonprofit Recognition Policy and then sign up to be added to their database of nonprofits. Ammado has staff dedicated to vetting nonprofits and researching their legal status. This vetting includes checking registration with proper authorities, reviewing of websites, calls or inquiries, personal referrals, etc.

2) After your nonprofit is approved, you then create a profile. You can add a summary of your organization, photos, post news and articles, join/create communities, etc. Once your profile is up and running, you can then apply to accept online donations by clicking the “Apply for Donations” button on your Ammado profile. Donations are accepted in 20 formats (Visa, AMEX, PayPal, Diners Club, JCB, Carte Bancaire, etc.) and the processing fee of 5% is used to cover  donation processing fees. Nonprofits are responsible for wire transfer fees. See their Giving Policy for more information.

The minimum donation amount is $5 US and donors are emailed a receipt. Unlike Causes, nonprofits on Ammado can use internal email tools to message donors individually and get access to the donor’s email address. I made a donation. No problems. In fact, I was prompted to add a “Donate Now” box onto my Facebook profile after giving. I agreed. A screenshot is below:

The great thing is that nonprofits can add this “Donate Now” box to their Facebook Fan Pages as well. Seemingly something so simple, but something incredibly necessary that has never been done. Nonprofits can also can also push/post the “news and articles” that they post on their profile on Ammado directly to their Facebook  Page. You can learn more at  Ammado’s Facebook Page.

3) Ammado provides some interesting fundraising tools to both individuals and nonprofits. Much of it based on peer-to-peer fundraising, like Causes. The idea is to empower people to fundraise for your nonprofit online and on Facebook. I am 50/50 on peer-to-peer fundraising. I think it works great for marathons and in lieu of birthday, wedding gifts, etc., but most donors give to nonprofits of their choosing that are working on issues that they care about. Keep that in mind. Pitch Ammado’s peer-to-peer fundraising tools in that context. After 3 years at Change.org, the only peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns that ever worked were based on marathons, birthdays, weddings, etc. Occasionally when the campaign was about an issue of timely importance (gay marriage, legalization of medicinal marijuana, etc), peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns would work, but only if the organizer was incredibly dedicated and online savvy with lots of friends and connections.

That said, Ammado’s giving circles and giving communities are a pretty slick new take on peer-to-peer fundraising that supporters/creators can also embed on their Facebook and Bebo profiles:

They also offer giving vouchers and giving widgets which can be embedded on blogs and Web sites by both your nonprofit and your supporters:

4) There’s also an interesting corporate giving component that no other social networking site has addressed. There’s a lot of potential there for large donations and corporate social responsibility Web 2.0 style. I am honestly surprised that it’s taken this long.

In closing, I got to say muchos kudos to Ammado.com for empowering nonprofits worldwide… for taking it upon themselves to invest the time and resources necessary to vet and empower nonprofits outside of GuideStar. They also have some great widgets and Apps, and the corporate giving angle is just damn smart. I hope they do well. In fact, I am so impressed that I am going to start covering them in my How Nonprofit Organizations Can Successfully Use Facebook Pages and YouTube Webinar on Thursdays at 2pm GMT. My Thursday Webinars are specifically for nonprofits outside the United States. Also, after you set up your profile, make sure you grab Ammado’s Web 2.0 icon and embed it on your Web site, blog, Facebook Page, etc.!

Here are three Worst Practices to avoid in your online fundraising campaign

1.  Do NOT put someone in charge of online fundraising who does not understand traditional fundraising. Here’s the reality of online fundraising: it’s like any other type of fundraising – the only difference being that it takes place through online channels.  It is FAR easier to teach someone who understands fundraising how to use Facebook than it is to teach someone who understands Facebook how to do fundraising.

2.  If your online fundraising strategy can be summarized as the hope of converting a percentage of Facebook’s 300 million users into donors – then you don’t have an online fundraising strategy. Here’s the starting point for your online strategy: begin with the people you know, and build from there.  You start with the people who have visited your web site to make donations, or who have signed up to receive your E-Newsletter, or who have “Fanned” you on Facebook.  You teach yourself the rules of social media fundraising by first engaging with this friendly crowd of people, sharing photos, videos, and stories.  This practice will lay the ground work for you to expand.

3.  Don’t measure your success using numbers that you don’t understand. If someone tells you to measure success based on the number of people who follow you on Twitter, or your Facebook friends, but those numbers don’t seem to correspond to anything meaningful to your organization, you should start asking questions about how those numbers relate to your current goals.  Such as: How many donors have found you through social media?  How many alumni have you re-established a relationship with through online channels?  What activities appear to cause an optic in donation activity or customer inquiries?  And so on.

Your online strategy needs to be a subset of your total organizational strategy.  It should be easily understood and measurable against itself on regular intervals.  And if you don’t understand your strategy, trust your instincts and know that something is very wrong.

Last month, www.nonprofitstreet.com shared news about the launch of YouTube’s Nonprofit Program. This innovative and free program allows nonprofit organizations to insert links inside their videos so that viewers can be easily directed to the cause’s Web site. For this new program to be effective, videos posted by nonprofit organizations must be compelling and must move people to action.

In this video posted by www.citizentube.com, the author discusses how to make videos go to work for your cause:

Has your organization used online videos in its advocacy or fundraising efforts? If so, what is working for you and what isn’t? Share your experiences here, and JVA may include them in an upcoming issue of the JVA 411.

The report Online Tactics Success: An Examination of the Obama for America New Media Campaign, written by Sarah DiJulio, Executive Vice President, and Andrea Wood, Senior Consultant, of M+R Strategic Services (M+R) for the Wilburforce and Brainerd Foundations, is an excellent document about an excellent political campaign.

When I read a very good text, I usually encounter one major problem: this is almost impossible to make notes, because I want to copy and save every other sentence in my working file. It indicates that there are no extra and useless information in the examined material. I consider this type reports or articles the best writing models.

Although the subject of Online Tactics Success is the best strategies for the online fundraising, and political campaign, for me this is mostly about the importance of being creative, professional in all the stages of the advertising campaign, and the ability to see and use the momentum.

What I mean is that there are no best methods and approaches for all the times and places. Political leaders in developing world can not adopt the same online strategies, which Obama used for his campaign, as Internet access there may be very limited, for instance. Meanwhile, they can learn the lesson of deep understanding of the current social trends, and professional usage of this data. If in Northern America, the majority of population pays attention on the online adds and read e-mail every day, in the some regions the graphity, for instance may be much more popular way of communicating and advertising the new ideas.

I believe, weather this is corporate advertising, or political campaign, it is critical to understand which part of the society uses which type of communication, and use it for your benefit.

Coming from Russia I always reflect on how it is possible to use what I learn in States in my home country. Initially, I thought that Obama’s tactics are almost meaningless for Russian political leaders. Meanwhile, I think I should change my mind.

One of the major goals of a candidate for some post is to make people vote. I believe that the political passiveness of the public is a common problem around the world. Many people are dissatisfied with the situation in their countries, cities or communities, but when it comes to voting, they are either too lazy to vote or don’t believe that their voice will bring a change. Unfortunately, in many countries, this it true – elections can get very screed up … . Meanwhile, online campaign may make a difference even in the countries with low Internet penetration.

I think that young people around the world love to learn new things, especially if it give them access to games, chats, making new friends, and connecting to the outside world (meaning other cities and countries). Even if they don’t have access to it at home, they have enough energy and desire to travel to some other place to get what other youngsters already have. I can imagine that this part of the world population may react actively on some adds and e-mails about some leader who is going to do his best to provide easy access to Internet, and who is using modern technology him/herself. The same idea can be applied to the mobile phones.

Thus we can conclude that this is critical to measure and evaluate accurately, the best means for advertising and campaigning, and use it in a smart way, always combining several of them. Another lesson is that the messages (or video clips) themselves also have to be appropriate for the particular audience. I also believe that Obama’s campaign benefited much from using creative, journalistic, storytelling approaches. Incorporating the real life stories of various people, out of government offices or big corporations into the campaign was a winning technique for the future American president. It helped Obama to address the issues which were important for the whole American society.

Obama’s campaign experience can certainly be useful not only for political leaders, but for the non- and for-profit organizations as well.

If you understand a few simple things about the phenomena known as “cloud computing,” you’ll understand one of the most revolutionary forces that is shaping the landscape of technology.

The simple summary of cloud computing is this: software that is completely accessible over the Internet. What does that mean? It means that your computer could break, but your software would keep going.  You could spill coffee on your hard drive, but your data will survive.  This is because the data lives on the cloud, which is a metaphor for the Internet.  This also means that when you travel, you have the same resources that you have at home.

So what are the three most important things you need to know about cloud computing?  They are:

1. Buying a product on the cloud is generally cheaper than buying a stand alone product.
2. Products that live on the cloud should be more reliable than products that don’t, because when there is a problem, the supplying company can address it immediately, fixing the problem for all customers at once, rather than for one customer at a time.  (I am sure that many people will argue with me on this point, but I stand by it: remember that I did not say that products are the cloud won’t have any bugs, just that fixing them is more efficient.
3. Products on the cloud are only customizable within certain boundaries. That’s the tradeoff.  Don’t get me wrong, you can always build customized functionality into a software product (cloud or not), but the strength of cloud computing is providing one standard product to millions of people, rather than providing a million unique products to a million people. The less you care about customization, the happier you’ll be with a cloud-based solution.

So those three things are what you need to know about the cloud.  And, according to a recent study you can read about here, more and more institutions are testing out cloud-based products.  Which is a good thing.  The biggest complaint I hear about the cloud is that minor customizations are tricky.  For example, Organization A loves the cloud-based product, but instead of shading the bottom half of the page in gray, they want a white background.  And Organization A can have a custom white background, but instead of paying $50 a month, it may cost $5,000 up front, or $100,000 to go for a completely non-cloud solution.  Does that make sense?

Stateside Contact: Michael Behm at mjb@stateside.com

CSG will hold its Annual Conference November 12-15 in La Quinta, California. At the meeting, the various task forces will discuss the first docket of Suggested State Legislation for the 2011 cycle. In addition to the various Policy and Professional Development Workshops being offered, the conference will feature the following speakers:

• Dr. Spencer Wells, a population geneticist, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and leader of the Genographic Project, which seeks to document humans’ migration history through the use of genetic data.
• Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek and author of Franklin and Winston and American Lion.
• Ben Self, founding partner of Blue State Digital, which provides online fundraising, advocacy, social networking and constituency development programs for nonprofit organizations, political candidates and causes and corporations.
• A panel with Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton, Jr., Oregon Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz and Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson.

The submission deadline for policy resolutions that will be considered at the conference is October 22.

CSG’s September 2009 issue of State News discusses, among other topics, the need for states to foster interest in broadband so that after stimulus-funded projects build the service, customers will access it. The article cites a study by The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Internet and American Life Project, which found that in 2008 two-thirds of adults without high-speed Internet access indicated a lack of relevance or interest in the service, and that one-third of adults without broadband cited availability and price as their reasons for not having broadband. Supporters of the broadband projects see the need for adults without broadband access to be aware of the benefits it provides in order to be more willing to purchase the service in the future.

According to a recent article in the The Chronicle of Philanthropy, many nonprofit organizations are probably violating laws in some states because they are collecting donations through online fundraising without letting state authorities know.

The article goes on to say that as many as 90 percent of all nonprofit groups may not have complied with state registration laws, according to Tony Martignetti, a planned-giving adviser in New York and author of Charity Registration: State-by-State Guidelines for Compliance.

As evidenced by the successful use of social media during President Barack Obama’s campaign, advancements in technology are shaping the way organizations raise funds. Nonprofits must understand the implications that come along with these new practices so that their efforts can be rewarding and not potentially harmful.

How is your organization adapting in today’s increasingly technology-driven fundraising environment? What challenges are you facing?

(This is the second of two posts on getting your organization quoted in news stories.  Click here or the first post in this series.)

The second step (click here to re-read the first step) to getting your organization quoted in the news is pretty easy.   All you need to do is: (a) read the newspaper and (b) keep a record of the names of reporters who write stories that you wish you were quoted in.  If you’re disciplined about clipping only relevant news stories and saving the names and contact information for the right reporters, you’ll quickly have a powerful list of journalists to talk to.

Some people get cocky with their press list.  They indiscriminately blast out mass emails to reporters, newscasters and producers, hoping that they’ll get lucky and find an interested reporter, and sometimes they do.  But this strategy will rarely result in a productive, long-term relationship with a reporter, a relationship in which the reporter relies on you for information, tips, and quotes when she needs to quickly produce a story.

To get that type of productive relationship, you should think about what you can do for the reporter, not just what the reporter can do for you.  So, take all the data you’ve been compiling on your industry that I discussed in the last post, and build your talking points around the data.  Once your data begins to tell a story, that’s the moment you should pick up the phone to make phone calls.  Since you’ve been diligently reading the newspaper and saving relevant stories, you’ll know exactly who will be interested in the story your data is telling.

For example, if you wish you had been quoted in the controversial Washington Post story from April 22nd about the supposedly dismal results of Facebook Causes (written by Kim Hart and Megan Greenwell), you might call them up and say something like: “I know you are interested in stories about philanthropy and technology, and I thought you might be interested in taking a look at some of the data we have been collecting about our online fundraising results.  Our data shows that 25% of our donors have interacted with us on Facebook, but if you look only at our new donors, over 75% of them reached us through Facebook…Not only that, but both numbers have increased 2% a month for the last six months.  The data shows some other interesting trends that I’d love to talk to you about…”

That’s the type of conversation you want to have with a reporter who covers your industry.  If you do it enough, and if you provide honest and accurate information that you can back up with data, you will earn long-term trust and attention.

Did you find this blog post useful?  Let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an email.  Thanks.  will@alumnifidelity.com

This morning I followed my 10,000th nonprofit on Twitter! A young nonprofit dedicated to building schools for girls in developing countries named Circle of Women. That they are number 10,000 is completely random, but I am pleased that it is an organization with a mission dear to my heart. I worked for a number of years in international development and it’s true when they say “Empower Women – Change the World.”

Their first project is a secondary school for 1,200 girls in Afghanistan where the female literacy rate is only 12%. Also known as Project Wonkhai, the school opened it’s doors in March 2009. Let’s help them get started on Twitter by following them at @CoWReachnTeach. If you are feeling generous, please join me in making a small donation. Since they use Google Checkout to process their donations, you can give as little as $1. I gave $25 [which will provide 1 student with textbooks and other supplies for 1 year]. If you do make a donation, please let me know by posting a comment below. I’ll return the favor by sending a Tweet to the 76,000+ followers [Wow!] of @NonprofitOrgs letting them know you did so – no matter how small your donation. Just be sure to list the Twitter username you want me to Tweet and you don’t need to say publicly how much you gave.

In an effort to serve as portal to nonprofits on Twitter, @NonprofitOrgs only follows nonprofit organizations [now 10,000!]. If you are nonprofit on Twitter, and I am not yet following your organization, please Tweet:

@Follow Request @NonprofitOrgs

Thank you. Also, Circle of Women… for being number 10,000, you win a free pass for all your staff.

(This is the first of two posts on getting your organization quoted in news stories.  Click here for the second post in this series.)

Measure everything you can.  That way when reporters are writing stories about trends in your industry, they won’t need to settle for the abstract general statistics that are usually the impetus for their story in the first place.

Most schools and charities don’t track nearly as many facts about their fundraising as they could.  According to a recent study of 550 major schools, two thirds don’t even track the total number of online gifts they receive.  If you’re one of the few schools that track this information, you’re in a position to be a tremendously valuable resource for any reporter writing a story on fundraising trends.  And if your numbers show that your online gifts are rising while other gifts are falling, or if your online giving is falling at a slower rate than the national average, the reporter will be thrilled to be able to highlight your numbers (along with a short, positive explanation for why you’re beating the odds) to give validity to their story.

And if you’re one of the few organizations tracking detailed trends in your fundraising efforts, it’s also very likely that you’ll be using that data to outperform the competition, which means you’ll be glad when the reporter highlights how great you are in their story.

Back when I was the Press Secretary for a Congressman on Capitol Hill, I didn’t need to worry about any of this.  I could say, “My boss just did such and such,” or even, “My boss is thinking about such and such,” and the next day, or later that afternoon, there would be a story quoting me or my boss on TV or in print.  Outside of Capitol Hill, life isn’t that easy for most people.  If we want to get all the benefits of being highlighted favorably in a news story, we need to illustrate how we fit into a trend that the reporter is writing about.  And the best way to establish your credibility for this is to have as many unique statistics as possible about whatever you’re doing.  So measure everything.

Once you have the basics of a modern online fundraising strategy in place, the basics being (1) a website, (2) an E-Newsletter, and (3) a social media plan, you are ALMOST done.

It is often overlooked, but without adding ANY cost to your operation, you can put in place an analytic program that measures everything that happens on your website, your donation page, your E-Newsletter, as well as in the social media stratosphere.

Not only can you measure the obvious stuff, such as where your traffic is coming from (Twitter? Facebook? Some crazy guy’s blog?), but you can also analyze exactly what all of your donors have in common.

For example, with a good analytics program, you may learn that every single person who chooses to make a donation to you ALSO happens to stumble upon an obscure section of your web site.  Once you know that info, you may choose to zero in on that obscure section, and pull it out and put it right at the top of your homepage.  Then, once you do that, you can measure whether it helps persuade more people to become donors.

Or you may learn that a high percentage of your new donors are finding you through Facebook.  And maybe instead of devoting a huge chunk of staff time to an E-Newsletter that (your analysis tells you) is producing very few new donations, you should carve out a meaningful amount of staff time to maximize the benefits you’re accruing from Facebook.  Or you may learn that the opposite is true, and your E-Newsletter should get more attention to live up to its potential.

The point is, you learn.  And then you can make decisions accordingly.

The incredibly fast adoption of Social Media over the last couple of years has left many, if not most, organisations in something of a spin – as, in very short order, something that was at first dismissed as the preserve of the young and the geeks has become an unavoidable key component of mainstream communications.

With this recognition has come the need to better understand and manage the use of social media by organisations – including charities and other non-profits – leading to the desire to develop social media guidelines to help ensure that everyone across an organisation works together to get the most from this new technology. However, this is not as easy a task as it might sound. Where do you start when trying to write guidelines for something that is, at its heart, often about engagement through spontaneous, unstructured conversations?

Well, one very handy place to start is Chris Boudreaux’s Social Media Governance website, where he has very helpfully collated links to social media guidelines from over 70 different organisations – including the American Red Cross and Easter Seals, as well as a diverse range of other corporate and public sector organisations.

While the very organisation-specific nature of Social Media usage means that it’s unlikely you’ll find an exact fit for your own guidelines – reading how others have approached the same challenge should certainly help you set off in the right direction.

Please Note: All nonprofits in the United States that have an entry in GuideStar.org are also on Change.org. You can access your nonprofit’s profile and the Change.org tool set by signing up for a Nonprofit Admin account. Now on to the best practices:

1. Brand your organization’s profile on Change.org.

Nonprofits can easily design their profile on change.org to match their website and other social networking sites. Once you brand your profile, then your actions, fundraising projects, fundraising pages, etc. are also branded which definitely results in more donations and action participants. Learn More: Nonprofits can now brand their own profiles on Change.org!

2. Send “Thank You Compliments” to all your donors and fundraisers on Change.org.

Donors on Change.org love receiving compliments and they often result in repeat donations. It’s especially important that you compliment your donors that have opted out of providing their contact information to your organization. It’s the only way to further engage them! [See  Compliments]

3. Ask your supporters to create a fundraising page for your organization.

The number one reason people donate to nonprofit organizations is because they were asked to by either a friend or family member, or the nonprofit organization itself. The same is true of fundraisers. They need to be asked. There are hundreds of thousands of kind-hearted, generous individuals out there on the Web. Your role is to empower them to fundraise on behalf of your organization.

That said, promote your “Start A Fundraising Page” link [View Example] on your website, in your email newsletter, on your MySpace profile, your Facebook Page, and your blog. Imagine if you had 100 fundraisers out there on the Web asking their friends and family to donate to your organization! Fundraisers on Change.org usually raise between $50 and $2,500 for their favorite organization and numerous new donors. All you need to is ask them to fundraise for your organization and your core supporters will be more than happy to oblige. Fundraising pages have the most success during the holidays, so now is good time to be thinking about asking your supporters to create fundraising pages for your organization this holiday season.

4. Create an E-mail Petition.

E-mail petitions are by far the fastest an easiest way to build your Change.org community. Unlike other online petitions, Change.org e-mail petitions send an e-mail to the target each time someone signs on. When people sign on, they also become members of your Change.org community and 10% of those will also provide your organization their e-mail when then sign on (which can be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet from your Admin Dashboard). Learn More: 15 Steps to Launching a Successful E-mail Petition Campaign on Change.org

5. Get active in Cause communities!

Change.org has numerous Cause Communities and each one is guided by a blogger who is an expert in their field. Send each blogger a Supporter Request and let them know about your organization and the actions your organization is creating on Change.org. As you may have noticed, each Cause community has featured actions and nonprofits. Building relationships with the bloggers and participating in their Cause Communities is an way to possibly receive extra promotion on Change.org. And of course, bloggers love blog comments!

6. Post at least 2 “Asks” a week.

A little bit like a Tweet with a call-to-action, Asks [for Help] are an easy way to keep your profile current on Change.org. Asks also show up on Change.org’s Help Nonprofits Page and will be soon integrated into Cause communities!

7. Use our “Take Action” and Fundraising Widgets.

After you create an e-mail petition, you can grab a “Take Action” widget that you can posted on Blogs, MySpace, etc. Fundraising widgets are located in your Admin Dashboard. To see an example, of the widgets live, please visit the Nonprofit Organizations MySpace.

8. Grab Web 2.0 icons from your Admin Dashboard and post them on your Web site, Blog, Facebook Page, etc.

Not only can you link to all your social networking profiles on your Change.org profile, but they have also created a tool that will allow you to grab the html for these icons to post them on other social networking sites. Learn More: Need Web 2.0 icons for your Website, Facebook page, MySpace profile? Just copy and paste!

9. Put a Change.org “Donate Now” button on your Facebook Page, Blog, Website

Many nonprofits limit their Facebook fundraising to using Causes, but not everyone wants to donate via Causes. Using the Static FMBL App on Facebook, you can very easily add a Change.org “Donate Now” button to your Facebook Page, Blog, Web site, etc. Learn More: HOW TO: Add a Donate Now Button to Your Facebook Page, Blog, Website

10. Post fundraising projects that are $10,000 or less.

Individuals are very unlikely to donate to fundraising projects with large dollar amounts because they want to contribute to a project that they known has a good chance of being fully funded. In addition to your General Fund fundraising project, post at least one or two more projects, but keep them at $10,000 or less. [View Example]

There has been a growing level of discussion here in the UK fundraising sector over the last couple of months about the much awaited launch of video-based charity project crowdfunding site See the Difference – added to just this week by a resounding endorsement in an open letter from UK Institute of Fundraising CEO Lindsay Boswell, which you can read on the Institute website.

As I outlined in my post about this exciting initiative back in May, the See the Difference team includes an impressive line-up of corporate backers contributing time and resources to launch a site that will offer videos of funding opportunities from a wide range of different charities, supported by social media sharing technology and the promise of specific video updates when projects are completed.

At first sight, this might just look like a video-based version of any number of existing fundraising websites already available – like GlobalGiving and PifWorld. However, what I find particularly interesting about See the Difference is just how they describe their vision for the site.

On their introductory video, Stuart Hamilton, one of the founding team, shares the vision for See the Difference by explaining “We might start seeing the See the Difference logo in all sorts of unexpected places, the logo appearing in all of the different places around the world where projects are going on. So See the Difference could ultimately become the standard way in which people choose and express the things they care about and the differences that they want to make to the world”.

This is a very exciting ambition for the See the Difference brand – and also very interesting from the point of view of charity fundraisers.

Put simply, if See the Difference grows the way that it hopes to then it could ultimately replace individual charity brands as the owners of relationships with online donors who fund their projects. Why give a regular donation to an established charity for them to use however they see fit, when you can instead choose specific projects that interest you from a wide range of different charities through See the Difference – and receive your updates and future giving opportunities through them too? In effect, See the Difference becomes my ‘Charity Choice Consolidator’ – and, thanks to them, I am free to switch my giving whenever I feel like it to any other organisation represented on their site.

I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing – as this type of model fits very much with the way I believe fundraising needs to evolve if we are to capitalise on the opportunities Web 2.0 offers us to provide the choice and engagement that younger online-savvy potential donors are demanding. Indeed, I’d go as far as to say that if we don’t evolve to offer such choice and engagement then we are in real danger of losing-touch not only with young donors but increasingly with those currently at the peak of their earning capability, who are typically less than enamoured with the traditional fundraising approaches used by most charities.

But what fundraisers – and the charities they work for – need to get to grips with is that the idea of charities no longer owning the long-term relationship with those people who fund their work is a real game changer. At the ultimate extreme, if donor relationships become the responsibility of a third party then there is no longer a need for the supporter database and direct marketing teams in every charity across the land to continue to be employed. In this new fundraising future, the key in-house fundraisers skill will be in packaging the work of their charity such that it will sell well on a Charity Choice Consolidator site.

There are, of course, alternatives to a single brand Consolidator-driven fundraising future. For example, SocialActions has taken a different route to providing online supporters with a means of choosing financial and non-financial support opportunities from a wide range of different organisations. They maintain an ever growing open source database of what are termed ‘micro-philanthropic opportunities’ – which can either be directly searched at SocialActions.com or used to ‘push’ opportunities specific to a particular cause or area out to any other website which wishes to publicise them. And, of course, there is still ample opportunity for charities themselves to engage directly with supporters online.

The truth is that for the foreseeable future I expect to see online fundraising evolve to embrace a mix of charity-specific approaches, open source aggregation, and big brand charity choice consolidators – with supporters choosing how to engage based on whether they have a specific link with an existing charity brand or are more interested in a variety of support opportunities.

What is for sure is that fundraisers need to be preparing right now for this evolution – understanding the new opportunities on offer and what implications each of these might have on the way they work, and developing strategies and staff training programmes that will equip them to maximise their online fundraising income in future.

Over the last few years we’ve heard a lot of discussion about nonprofits and their use “Web 2.0″ and social media. Much of the focus has been on the fundraising tools themselves [namely "Apps" and "widgets"]… What are they? How do they work? Do they work? But very little analysis has been made about how Web 2.0 donors are different.

I am on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Change.org, etc. a minimum of 40 hours a week and I have been noticing and pondering some distinct characteristics of Web 2.0 donors:

1) The vast majority are in their 20’s and 30’s and are very comfortable with Web 2.0 technology. Once they start giving on social networking sites, they don’t go back to Web 1.0 giving (your website).

2) Most Web 2.0 donors also don’t want to receive your print materials. They want you to save the resources used to print the materials and the postage necessary to mail them. And they definitely don’t want a print thank you letter for the $10 donation they gave you on a social networking site! They have come of age in an era where environmental sustainability and frugality is much discussed and increasingly prioritized in their personal lives. This worldview directly affects they way they give and the way they want to be approached by the nonprofits that they support.

3) They want “Thank You” wall comments and compliments! They donate in a public commons like Change.org or Facebook Causes therefore the vast majority also appreciate being thanked in the public commons.

4) On average, when they donate they will only provide you their e-mail address and opt out of providing your organization their mailing address. I believe, despite much talk lately of e-mail “dying”, that in fact the opposite is true. Your nonprofit needs to focus more on your e-mail newsletter than ever before because e-mail may be the only way you can contact and nurture your Web 2.0 donors outside of social networking sites.

5) They give in smaller amounts, more often, and to many nonprofits that they have never heard of before until they saw them on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Change.org, etc. In short, if your organization isn’t on these sites, then your organization is not on their radar screen. In most cases, they will only become repeat donors if you nurture and interact with them where they live online.

I am a classic Web 2.0 donor. In 2008, I gave almost $1,200  to 90 nonprofits on Change.org. In the backend of my individual account, I can see a running list and total of all the donations I have made since joining Change.org in February of 2007… and print out a tax-receipts for 2007, 2008, 2009, etc. I never would have give made 90 separate donations on 90 different websites… not only because it takes time, but think of all the paper and postage that would have been wasted! My contact info would have been bought, sold, and traded many times over… this is why I won’t donate on an organization’s website. On Change.org and other Web 2.0 giving sites, I have the control over my giving and contact information.

Web 2.0 giving is addictive. I only gave $300 in 2007. Giving on sites like Change.org is fun… and I earn frequent flyer miles (to which I am addicted) by using my credit card.

And finally, understand that your organization will continue to have your check writers and your Web 1.0 Donors, but there is third group of donors out there now that is entirely different. Your approach to them, how you thank them, and engage and inspire them to give again needs to be entirely different as well.

Some pretty shocking data for UK fans of the social networking site MySpace was highlighted last week, with the news that traffic to the site has now dropped behind that of microblogging site Twitter.

On one side, this is just more evidence of the amazing rise of Twitter in the UK (leading to London being described as the “capital of Twitter” by its CEO, Ev Williams) – and these site traffic stats actually only tell part of that story, due to the number of people using third-party applications to manage their Twitter accounts.

However what is more significant is such clear evidence for the apparent collapse of MySpace over here.

With the pace of change in the Web 2.0 world over the last few years, it’s easy to forget just how dominant MySpace looked in the UK market back in the early days of the online social networking goldrush. As a reminder, I dug-out a blog post I wrote ‘way back’ in early June 2007 – when it was Facebook that was the freshfaced newcomer showing what would now be described as ‘Twitterish’ growth…

Amazing to think that back then MySpace was sitting pretty on over 100m users worldwide, compared to Facebook’s mere 25m. The story since then has of course been dominated by Facebook – with it’s active user numbers reaching 250m by July this year, while MySpace growth has stalled such that even its dominance in the US social media market seems doomed.

All in all, a useful reminder never to take the social networking world for granted. It is still a far from mature marketplace and there is pretty well constant change going on out there, whether related to new functionality, shifting user demographics, or the simple departure of users altogether. All of which makes it essential for any marketers or fundraisers responsible for social media activity to keep an eye out for data that helps them understand just what’s happening, so as to help guide where to invest time and budgets when looking to engage with supporters online.

Proctor & Gamble, currently the world’s 8th largest corporation and over 170 years old, was the first company to put a toll-free 1-800 number on all of its product packaging.  The first year after doing so, it received 200,000 phone calls from customers offering ideas or complaints.  For a company like P&G, which spends hundreds of millions of marketing dollars aimed at identifying and locating customers, it was a breakthrough to simply turn on a channel that allowed its customers to reverse the process and cheaply initiate the outreach.

Nonprofits, schools, and companies can think of social media the same way.  Just turn on the channel (with a blog, a Facebook profile, Twitter, YouTube, or a specialty service like AlumFi), and let your donors, volunteers, and customers find you.  Take their messages seriously.  Respond to them over the same social network with which they contacted you.  You’ll have richer communications, better relationships with your base, and a better year overall than you would otherwise have had.

I was very impressed when I ran across a very well done pop up ask on the Charity Navigator website.

It reads:

Did you know?

If everyone who paid us a visit over the course of a year voluntarily gave $1, we could comfortably meet our annual budget!

Our web site and all of its great content are absolutely free to everyone. It is our hope that this will never change. As a charity ourselves, we rely on the generosity of our users to help ensure that we can continue to expand and enhance our vital service for the benefit of charitable givers.

Whether you’re a first time visitor or a long time user, your gift of any size is deeply appreciated. If you click “yes” below, a new window will open up to our “Support Us” page. Thanks for supporting Charity Navigator!

Normally I get annoyed by any interruptive advertising but I felt like this was different, not a mere advertisement, but a statment of a fact that I may of overlooked.

One of the things I appreciated was that while I could of been asked for more I felt like my “portion” was only a dollar. On the donation page I was left to donate whatever I felt comfortable with.

I am curious what other people think of this method.

• Does a popup ad work?
• Does it turn people off?
• What are the best practices to doing this?