Charitable Thoughts

Building Your Email List

Dalene Bradford — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:56:00 GMT

Clients thinking about doing an e-newsletter for their nonprofit organization often lament that they don't have a good list of emails and ask how to build a good list. I tell them to start with what they already have, and I have considered writing a blogpost about other strategies.

But there's no reason to, now, with this great article by Ken Mahar, who encourages readers to share his ideas. It's worth the five minutes it'll take you to read it. While his examples are from for-profit sources, the principles translate readily.

Happy Birthday from Web 2.0

Dalene Bradford — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:52:00 GMT

Recently I celebrated a birthday and, to my surprise, the first one to wish me Happy Birthday was Facebook.

Interesting. Says something about my habits (checking Facebook early on a Saturday morning) and Web 2.0.

More on Mobile Giving

Dalene Bradford — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:32:00 GMT

I found a couple of additional resources about mobile giving that provide some easy to read articles:

What is mobile giving and how can it work for your nonprofit? Ask.com helps out.

What does Tech Soup have to say about it? The hypertext links aren't working but go to www.techsoup.org and search for "mobile giving."

Mobile Giving

Dalene Bradford — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:39:00 GMT

Not too long ago I was intrigued to learn that frequent Sonic visitors receive cell phone messages informing them about specials designed just for them. So it didn't surprise me when I started hearing about "mobile giving."

As more people use text messaging, the concept of using mobile phones allow donors to make donations seems logical, if a bit jarring to those us us in the nonprofit sector who are still catching up on technology social networking applications to our work.

But rest assured, mobile giving is not just headed our way--it's here. One othe earliest uses was an m-Qube partnerhip with US wireless carriers after the Katrina and Asian Pacific tsunami. Mobile giving allowed people to make small donations through their mobile devices, with the donations going through their regular carrier billing system. It was also used by the United Way during the Super Bowl to encourage donations to their Youth Fitness Program.

Now there is a nonprofit set up to remove some of the barriers needed to make this easy, cost effective and accessible for other causes. The Mobile Giving Foundation also lists PBS as one of its clients. Read an interview with founder, Jim Manis.

And, since this organization has been set up as a nonprofit, you can donate to their work. And what's on their donation page? A form that asks for your cell phone number, of course.

So your nonprofit is going to blog?

Dalene Bradford — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:16:00 GMT

On this rainy Saturday morning I've been surfing to see what new charitable blogs are out there and what they're talking about. Following the trail from blog to blog, I soon learned that the Chronicle on Philanthropy has compiled a nice list called Give & Take. They call it "A roundup of blogs about the nonprofit world."

So I poked around this list and noticed one of many with the name "charity" in the title. Click and I was there and the first thing I noticed, right at the top of the page, was an advertisement for penis enlargment. Yikes.

If you're blogging in this realm, you might want to pay the little extra cost to get an ad-free blog. It's not that pricey.

Free Web 2.0 Tools from Google

Dalene Bradford — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:21:00 GMT

At a workshop today I learned about some really wonderful tools that Google has made available for nonprofits. Check them out at www.google.com/nonprofits.

As Web 2.0 tools they're free and easily adaptable to websites, blogs, social networking sites. One caught my attention right away. A volunteer nonprofit I'm chairman of this year currently has a fee attached to its "shopping cart" for fee payments. I learned that, through Google Checkout, we can provide the same service without charging a fee.

Google Calendar also looks promising for this group. Since this nonprofit offers classes in French, Italian and Spanish during a nine month calendar, we can certainly use this tool and are certain to try it out.

What Obama is teaching nonprofits about volunteer engagement

Dalene Bradford — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:09:00 GMT

An unlikely place to experience the future of nonprofit volunteer engagement is a political website.

If you want to try out social networking, are a political junkie, or are just curious, consider checking out Barak Obama's website: www.barakobama.com. This is not an Obama promo, although you'll certainly get a peek at slick campaign strategy.

For a great comparison, do the same on John McCain's site. They make draw your own conclusions about how and when social networking works (and doesn't).

Obama's site (designed by a Facebook founder) invites you to join and receive regular emails. Not much new in that, although I'm finding new, interesting strategy and tone in their emails. But that's another post.

But take a step further. Set up a profile and get welcomed into the world of 200,000 plus "friends" of the candidate and a social network that blows your socks off. When you sign into "My Bo" (that does bother me a bit), you get your own Dashboard where you can find events in your neighborhood, create an event and invite others, find ways to volunteer--you get the idea.

You also get reinforced for taking part. You get a point when you sign in each time. Five points for hooking up with a friend (I have three--friends that is). It sounds a bit hokey at first, but think about the reinforcing value of this, used as a volunteer engagement strategy for your nonprofit.

Today I signed in and learned about their new tool: Neighbor to Neighbor. I can get a list of undecided voters in my neighborhood, a map, flyer and script. And off I can go to make conversions.

Learn how Obama did this, with help from Chris Hughes, one of the four founders of Facebook.

What is this, part 2.

Dalene Bradford — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:34:00 GMT

Two home pages are worth a thousand blog posts. If you're still thinking that nonprofit mission statements belong on home pages, visit these two sites and decide for yourself:

Malaria Foundation International
Malaria No More

I ended up visiting these sites after hearing Larry Rose interview Peter Chernin, COO of News Corporation. There was a fascinating discussion of Chernin's work (which includes leading a corporation that includes the Fox News, several newspapers, 20th Century Fox, and MySpace, among others).

Toward the end of the show, Chernin discussed his philanthropic passion. He is co-founder (with Ray Chambers) and now chairman of Malaria No More. His sincere commitment to his charitable work and their pssion about ending a major killer of children propelled me to my laptop to visit their website.

However, I forgot the website name, and went, mistakenly, to www.malaria.org. SCREECHING HALT to my excitement and interest. This couldn't be the site of the program I had heard so movingly described.

Well, it wasn't. And, luckily I persisted , Googling "Peter Chernin + malaria" and up popped the RIGHT site. And did it ever meet my expectations. Plus, what a perfect example of what I was talking about in my July 21 post.

Which mission moves you to get involved?

Goodness. If you needed a modern day example of Steve Krug's #1 rule, this is IT.

There are Lessons to be Learned

Dalene Bradford — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:46:00 GMT

After being part of several social networks for the past month or so, I'm quickly learning some lessons that nonprofits might consider before diving in to this arena:

First: You, yourself, have to be part of these networks before you can effectively understand how to make your nonprofit part of this world. I sensed this intuitively (hence my setting up a Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn profile). But since doing that, I've read that same advice in several blogs and tech articles where those more experienced than I are talking about this.

Second: If you're an uninitiated executive director who has returned from a nonprofit conference all atwit about using social networking for fundraising, cease and desist immediately. You may eventually be able to raise money through social networking, but that's not the place to start. Think relationship building, buzz building, listening and learning from your constituents.

Third: You can learn a lot from what others are doing before you jump in, make mistakes and toss out the baby with the bath water. Poke around and see what's happening. But, to do that well, return to the first suggestion above. You'll have to be part of some networks to see the extent of what's happening.

Learning About Social Networking

Dalene Bradford — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:53:00 GMT

This summer I decided to focus on learning more about community building, or social networking, sites. Many nonprofits are using them to build relationships, spread the word, build the buzz and even raise money. And if they're not using them now, they're thinking about it.

So I completed the LinkedIn profile I had began, somewhat half-heartedly, awhile back, created a MySpace and a Facebook profile. I "invited" some friends and sat back to see what came next. It didn't take long.

The first thing that surprised me was that people "found me." It seemed magical until I learned the tools for searching for and finding friends. Soon the tools were giving me hints at how to find "friends." A list of new members from the two universities where I received degrees from. Friends of friends ("shared friends"). How to use your address book.

Then I got some emails from people I hadn't heard from in awhile. And a couple of 30-something nieces and nephews began to write and share family photos (which wasn't happening through regular emails).

The next surprising thing is--I'm having fun. There's a key. It's fun. Hmmmm. There may be something to this.

Bikers Take to the Web

Dalene Bradford — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:39:00 GMT

In the website contest I judged recently there were event-specific sites submitted that caught my attention. I don't think any of these had been submitted in past contests.

One really attracted my attention because really targeted its audience of motorcycle riders exceptionally well.

Bikers for Babies is done around the country (and is well-supported by the national March of Dimes). The Kansas City race has been a big success during its 13-year history. Last year 8,000 bikers turned out and raised $717,000.) The site has a few flaws (a bit text-heavy on the home page, for one, and I'm not a fan of white lettering on black background). But this group knows who its target audience and is clear with its messages.

The photographs are fabulous. (They seem to move around, so peek about until you see my fav--the one with the premie in the motorcycle helmet). They engage participants in contributing photos to the photo gallery. Plus there's a great video on You Tube, with bikers speaking eloquently about the cause.

March of Dimes also provides an online fund-raising tool that riders can use to raise money from friends and family. Register, add your own message, then send out an email asking people to support you. The March of Dimes makes it easy to contribute to the cause, gather your funds, and attribute it to a particular rider.

This same event also has a MySpace page that didn't work so well for me visually. Maybe I'm just not used to MySpace yet. However, I love that they're trying so many ways to reach participants and to tell their story.

PS If you haven't explored March of Dimes' wonderful Share Your Story site (written about in an earlier post) don't miss that either.

What is this and what can I do here?

Dalene Bradford — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:23:00 GMT

While judging websites recently, I noticed a basic mistake taking place. It's one that Steve Krug vividly points out in his (still useful) book, "Don't Make Me Think."

Krug stresses that, when arriving at a website, a user should immediately be able to tell "What is this and what can I do here?" This seems to be a no-brainer, but it's surprising how many websites do not offer a short sentence explaining "what this is." (Perhaps we'll talk about the second question later.)

I've thought about why nonprofits sometimes do a poor job of answering the question, "What is this?" Here's what I've come up with.

First, website content is often written by non-profit staff people themselves. They're not trained in web strategy and the need to distill the "essence" of their work for a user is foreign to them.

Second, they are so close to the action that they assume everyone knows what their organization is all about. Even a long-standing organization like the Salvation Army needs to explain "what this is." (And I'm not sure that "Doing the Most Good" fits the bill.)

Second, nonprofits often see themselves as so multifaceted that they can't possibly be reduced to the essence statement that Krug asks for. This also leads nonprofits to describe all the "parts" and assume that the site visitor can pull it together themselves. "Parts is parts" might work to sell fried chicken. But it can confuse users and make it appear like your organization is all over the map.

Third, nonprofits often haven't taken the time to develop clear, concise and compelling message points. 'Nuf said.

Fourth, many nonprofits use their mission statement on their home page, thinking that this sums them up. Since I'm a strategic planning consultant who often helps organizations develop mission statements, you'd think I'd support this use of these important positioning statements. Au contraire. I don't believe that mission statements belong on home pages. Generally cobbled together by committees, mission statements cover the waterfront and provide important guidance for planning. However they rarely (if ever) work as an essence statement on a home page.

For an example of Krug's rules carried out well, check out the winning website in the awards program I helped to judge: www.water.org. It's very clear "what this is and what you can do there."

You'll have to find those that don't do this as well on your own.

Say What?

Dalene Bradford — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:50:00 GMT

Recently I helped to judge an awards program for local nonprofits who were competing for the best annual report, best e-newsletter, and so forth. I asked to be assigned to the website category. Having done this a year or two in the past, it was fun to see how much (or how little) nonprofit websites had improved.

Overall, I'd say they improved. One thing that was interesting to see was content in a second language (in three cases it was Spanish). Several sections of the site could be translated into Spanish and I gave extra points for the effort.

Then I thought of the photographer who we loved at a family reunion ("Boy, isn't he a great photographer?" we all exclaimed. Until the photos came back, out of alignment and oddly framed. Proof was in the photos).

So I called a friend fluent in Spanish and asked him to read the Spanish translations. Not a one was up to snuff. A foundation was the culprit in one case. He said their grant guidelines were so poorly written in English, that the Spanish translation was unreadable. The two other sites, that had translated program information for consumer groups, had poor translations, too.

If you're adding foreign language translations to your site, be sure they're good ones, or you're liable to offend the very people you're hoping to assist.

Oh, and the auto-translations I've seen in French (the language I'm most familiar with) are more humorous than helpful. Get a real person involved.

The Constant Evolution of Good Writing

Dalene Bradford — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:02:00 GMT

Several clients have asked me to help them with writing projects . As I coach the (mostly younger) staff members on how to create good, clear, compelling content, they often tell me that they thought they already were good writers. Many seem amazed by the principles I share and ask where I learned all this.

Good question. First, I've been a reader and word-nerd since elementary. In fifth grade I wrote a science fiction novel (and the color of my fountain pen ink changed when the main characters landed on another planet.) But basically, my answer is the same one in that old saw "What does it take to get to Carnegie Hall?" Answer, "Practice, practice and practice." You could also add "Edit, edit, edit." And "Read good writing."

Recent encounters sent me back to my bookshelf to find some resources that have helped me to hone my writing craft. On Writing Well by William Zinsser popped right out at me. It's entertaining, full of great insights and practical. I think I'm going to read it again.

Also, my friend and consultant Ann Wylie has a wonderful (free) e-newsletter that I devour every month. I even print off and save the copies (something I rarely do with e-newsletters). You can sign up for your own copy of RevUpReadership at www.wyliecomm.com.

Prospect Research Tools Have Mushroomed

Dalene Bradford — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 01:16:00 GMT

During an online seminar this week on Prospect Research (offered by the Moran Company), I was literally dazzled by the rich array of tools that are now available on the Internet. Elizabeth McHugh, vice president for prospect research at the Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation, was our presenter and guided us through a fascinating maze of helpful websites.

Many resources are free or low cost. Some of the expensive ones are amazing in the depth of information they assemble about prospects. They are also a bit scary as once you see what's out there in public records about people of wealth, you know that there's a lot info out there about you, too.

First, Elizabeth reminded us to search names by putting them into a Search field with quotations, like "James Pierpont Morgan," to assure that the engine searches for those words together (and not separately). I had learned this before, but had forgotten it somewhere along the line, so my research will improve immediately.

Here are a couple of sites I found interesting. I'll share more after I've done a bit more investigating:

www.vivisimo.com has the slogan "Search Done Right." My comment was "look for Google to buy up this company very soon." Instead of delivering search results in the form of long, undifferentiated lists, they cluster the information for you. After a search you see your usual list of numbered returns. However, on the left side of your screen, the information is also grouped under categories. Related to a prospect the categories might be "Birth," "Career," "Bios," "KC Star," etc. Each listing indicates how many entries are available within it. Great shortcuts to the info you really want.

Want to know what corporate boards a propsect sits on? You may find it at www.theyrule.com . There's a clever bit of Flash for the intro (which will probably get old--you can click on the graphics to get through it fast) and some irreverent talk about "the ruling class." But it could be a helpful tool as you make connections and get to know prospects better. It's run by one guy--Josh On--who hopes to update it annually (so much for that...last updated in 2004) and says he hopes we see "They Rule as a launch pad for investigations and not the definitive representation of reality."

You gotta love a search engine named Dogpile. At www.dogpile.com, they search the leading search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ask) after you click on the "GO FETCH" button. You might benefit from their wide search, but for now, but right now I'm enamoured of Vivisimo's categories.

Board Governance

Dalene Bradford — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 02:28:00 GMT

Grant Thornton has released a nifty report on board governance that is available free online. Weighing it at just around 10 pages, with lots of helpful charts and graphs, it's relatively easy reading.

They surveyed 960 nonprofit organizations from a broad swath of the sector. The report looks at issues like board policy changes, committees, size of board, conflict of interest statements, whistle-blower policies, and audit issues. It is fodder for a good discussion about issues every nonprofit board should be thinking about in this day of Sarbanes-Oxley and increased scrutiny of our sector.

Of note, "a majority (54 percent) of not-for-profit organizations surveyed indicate that they made changes to governance policies in the last three years, "reflecting the increased need for governance and accountabilitymany organizations are experiencing."

Also, "While only 37 percent of survey respondents say they do perform [board] self assessments, this is an area that is beginnign to build momentum in the not-for-profit industry."

Here's Your $10,000 T-shirt

Dalene Bradford — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:05:00 GMT

While lunching with a friend today I noticed that he was sporting a new t-shirt with his alma mater proclaimed on the front. The fresh crispness gave it away. When I mentioned it he said, "This is my $10,000 t-shirt." It appears that whenever his mother gives $10,000 to their mutual alma mater they send her a new t-shirt. Since she's 84, it's unlikely she'll actually use it.

I certainly hope that the t-shirt is not the sum total of her thank you. It also makes me wonder if this is an "auto-send" thank you that does not select an appropriate recognition using the customer relationship data available to the college?

Providing Donor Satisfaction

Dalene Bradford — Tue, 30 May 2006 19:32:00 GMT

A lifetime city dweller, I appreciate the pioneer and farm heritage on both sides of my family. So I enjoyed spending Memorial Day weekend in rural Kansas attending the alumni events of my seventy-something parents (I was their "show and tell"). We also visited relatives and decorated graves. A cousin from New York state was in town and provided me with a terrific story about donor satisfaction.

Our parents grew up in the country outside a very small north-central Kansas town (population < 200). One uncle owned the general store and another was president of the bank. After her parents died recently she found out how greatly their home in Arlington, Virginia had appreciated in value and decided to use some of the estate proceeds to honor them and the places they grew up.

Last year she purchased an organ for her mother's church in Beatty, KS and computers for the Agra, KS school her father attended. During her visit this year people sought her out to thank her for the gifts and tell stories about the money had been put to good use.

She had also given the local Boy Scout troop some unrestricted funds. These were used by an Eagle Scout to create a park and playground on Main Street. The Boy Scouts were part of the Memorial Day honor guard at the service we attended in the cemetery that was originally part of our great-grandfather's farm (and where her parents are buried). After hearing their appreciation, she made another gift to help the troop to send boys on a trip to Canada this year.

As local veterans finished playing taps and we walked across the cemetery back to the cars she talked to me about what these gifts meant to her. "I could have honored them with contributions to a heart or alzheimers association and gotten a nice letter. But then I'd just have gotten more requests for money. With these gifts, I really feel like I've done something meaningful for them."

It's this type of satisfaction that the research of Paul Schervish at Boston College tells us is a HUGE motivator for donors. The challenge for nonprofits is how to provide this type of feedback for more donors--even those that can't and won't (speaking metaphorically) fly from New York to rural Kansas for a visit.

How can you duplicate a handshake full of thanks and a sincere story told in person? There are ways...your mission is to find them.

Got grants?

Dalene Bradford — Fri, 26 May 2006 02:28:00 GMT

Can this possibly be the product of a bureaucracy? Grants.gov, a website provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, is pretty amazing by my high standards.

If you're looking for grants to support your organization's work, check out this "single, secure Web site to find and apply for federal grants."

You can register for email notification of grant opportunities. And they offer webcasts to familiarize you with the available resources. They offer "context specific help"--click on a Help button on any page and the assistance provided relates to that page! You can also find tutorials, a training demonstration, email and phone support. Goodness, can polite and helpful clerks at the Divison of Motor Vehicles be far behind?

Maybe this is familiar to you, as they seem to have done a great deal of promotion of the site. But if it's news to you (as it was to me until today) take a look. Others have approved of it as well, it appears, as the site was among 10 semifinalists from federal agencies (and 50 overall) for the six $100,000 Innovation in American Government awards in 2005.

I also learned today, through some grant research on National Endowment for the Arts guidelines, that applying online through Grants.gov is optional at many governmental sources of funding. However, they will soon require use of this system. As a former foundation program staff member, this seems like a good idea to me--and the government is WAAAY ahead of the foundation community with this coordination, convenience and online access.

Do you know where your domain name is?

Dalene Bradford — Wed, 17 May 2006 13:57:00 GMT

John Jantsch offers some simple--but valuable advice in a recent post. Basically he says, "Make sure that you have ultimate control over your domain name or risk losing it or suffering some serious downtime if your web host goes belly up."

This recently became important for a local nonprofit that had left everything related to their website in the hands of the designers. Their site was just three months old when the web developer went out of business--and didn't answer calls. Their site went down and a few difficult days followed as they tried to sort out all of the relationships. And this was not some small grassroots organization where technical confusion might be understandable--it was a nonprofit with a very large IT department.

To prevent this from happening to you, check out TechSoup's thorough (and free) Technology Inventory Worksheet that can be used to document important technology information and assets. It starts with external services (like domain name, web hosting, email hosting) and goes even further to prompt you to think about your:

PC Inventory
Server Inventory
Back-up Configuration
Software Inventory
Physical Security Risk Assessment
Staff Skills
Network Inventory
Printers and Peripherals Inventory
Technology Management Questionnaire

Walking your staff through this worksheet can be a great eye-opener to risks your organization may be taking by not having all of this documented and regularly updated.