Ever wonder why your nonprofit donors decide to stop supporting your organization? Check out this data by Bloomerang and the Rockefeller Corporation that compares why donors leave compared to why customers leave commercial companies. One of the reasons I appreciate research like this is because it demonstrates the importance of providing the best constituent experiences no matter if you work in the nonprofit world or the for-profit world. If we don’t alwas focus our attention on building these strong relationships, we lose people.

Thanks to Marc Pitman for finding this great gem of a graphic.

Five questions to help you decide which cloud computing solutions to adopt

Thunderclap: Championing Board Diversity!: Young Charity Trustees is two years old! Please support our drive for greater Board Diversity! http://thndr.it/ZwcaSa”

This year at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, I had the pleasure of designing and facilitating a session on “Content Curation for Nonprofits”  with Will Coley.  This blog post offers reflections and resources from the session.

I’ve been a content curator for many years, using the techniques to help me develop curriculum materials for workshops and blog posts – as a form of professional development.  Will Coley, comes to the topic understanding how activists and activist organizations are using the techniques as part of their content and engagement strategies. Will is also does a lot of work with video – so when he proposed that we incorporate video interviews as part of the session,  I was thrilled.

The session was designed to balance content delivery with peer interaction.  The value of bringing in pre-recorded interviews with other folks to offer brief insights related to the particular topic made the session more engaging.   While it is hard to measure actual attention spans, there is research that people pay closest attention during the first 10-18 minutes of lecture – and then their minds wander.   So, varying speakers, interaction, and mediums – helps make the content stick.

One of the points we emphasized was that the art and craft of content curation was not mindless, click sharing of content.  That the curator selects, describes, filters, organizes, and present resources.   I did this in real-time as part of my presentation by highlight a e-book from Curata called “Feeding the Content Beast” with a foreword by Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and the co-author of “Content Rules.”

I went through what specific pages to read and why, and had included a screen capture of the six practical tips because I thought it was the best set of tips to approach content curation and highly relevant to the audience of nonprofit professionals looking for time saving techniques.   I mentioned that they had to fill out a form, but they could download the entire 20 page booklet.   I also acknowledged Giuseppe Mauriello, another curator on Scoop.It from where I found this excellent resource.

Harold Jarche - Click to Original Source

Today,   one of the foremost content curators Robin Good highlighted an updated version of Harold Jarche’s “Seek Sense Share” model applied to content curation.   I first came across Harold’s Seek Sense Share model back in 2011 and I actually made my New Year’s resolution for professional learning.  Later that year,  I had begun to notice that I needed to pay more attention to training my attention and to be more intentional about how I was sharing information.   The Seek-Sense-Share framework really helped me.

I connected Harold’s framework to content curation because it was useful for teaching the trade craft of content curation.   I hope that participants took away from our session, if nothing else, that content curation requires the human brain, as Robin Good points out.   And that if we haven’t reviewed and thought about a resource, we should not share it.   This might be mean sharing less.

Content curation takes focus and discipline — being “brains on.”

 

 

 

We’re long-time members of the local JCC (Jewish Community Center, sort of a Jewish Y). Our daughter was there for daily pre-K care but now we’re there mostly for the pool and gym rather than the Jewishly-oriented cultural and learning programs.

Big Change: New members with diverse cultural perspectives
There’s been a big change at the JCC over recent years, as the membership has grown to include many who are not Jewish. When the JCC needed to funded a major facilities redo a few years ago,  the leadership decided to invite the larger (i.e. beyond Jewish)  community to join—focusing on use of the athletic facilities—and made changes, such as opening on Shabbat, to support their wants.

Challenge: How to connect with new members without losing the base
Brilliant idea and it’s worked well, but I watched eagerly for the JCC to revise their core messages (shaped to a shared Jewish context) too.

How could the JCC re-shape those messages to be accessible to members who aren’t Jewish, without losing the foundation of shared Jewish culture on which the JCC is built? Tough task.

Nothing is more basic to the operations of a community center than the process of making a complaint. And the JCC has always had a front-and-center complaint form—displayed at the front desk to be available at entry and exit. That’s what I’ve been watching.

Traditionally, this form has been titled Kvell and Kvetch (Yiddish for sharing joy and pride, and complaining). Great idea to soften a complaint (few of us go out of our way to share our pleasure when things are done well) with a bit of humor.

But that message was absolutely inaccessible to the non-Jewish members. In fact, its very existence sent a “you’re not one of us” message. Ugh!

Solution: Reference the traditional but make it accessible to all, with a smile

I was thrilled to see this revised form (at top) early this year. The JCC team has retained a bit of “the old” in this core message but makes it accessible to new members, all with a gentle sense of humor.

Kudos to these communications artists for a simple but effective message reframing that is a warm invitation “in” to all.

What challenges have you faced (or face now) in matching your messages with your people? Please share your challenges, or the solutions you’ve developed, here.

P.S. Get in-depth case studies, templates and tools, and guidance for nonprofit marketing success in the twice-monthly Getting Attention e-update. Subscribe today.

Temp to hire opportunity for part time Accounts Receivable clerk with experience in Quick Books and MS Office. Administrative assistance for small non-profit office in St. Francis, WI. Duties include: A/R using Quick Books, answering...

Local non-profit organization is looking for Volunteer Recruitment Coordinators (VRC) for telemarketing. Call Center environment. The VRC is responsible for contacting local business leaders and requesting the individual to participate in...

New web addresses for NGOs and non-profits - Telegraph: Two new types of web address will indicate that organisations are bona fide non-profits or NGOs, writes Brian Cute, the Chief executive of the Public Interest Registry

Niki Hammond Technical Project Manager MSDS You're redesigning your website. Of course you want it to look as good on a mobile device as it does on a large screen. But do you need an app, too? You're redesigning your website. Of course you want it to look as good on a mobile device as it does on a large screen. But do you need an app, too?

For most organizations, a responsive website is more than sufficient. But, there are some things that a mobile browser just can't do. Here's a quick breakdown of four approaches and key considerations for mobile design.

Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in a meeting organized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation called “Advancing Social Media Measurement for Foundations.”     The participants were a cross-disciplinary group and included people who work at different foundations in the areas of evaluation, communication, social media, and programs as well as people who work for nonprofits and as consultants who work in evaluation, social media, network analysis, data scientists, and others.

 

The main part of the meeting was two working sessions where we were divided into five small groups to focus defining outcomes, strategies, key performance metrics, and measurement methods for five outcome areas that may be common to many foundation’s communication’s strategies.

• Our foundation is viewed a valuable information source
• Our foundation is viewed as transparent
• Lessons are disseminated, multiplying impact beyond our foundation’s reach
• Public knowledge, pressure (to change policy) and action increase in strategic areas
• Our networks strengthen and diversify

Our group, like some others, found it difficult to work on these generically and struggled a bit until we created some specific scenarios.   Having spent a year working with KD Paine on our book, “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit,”  we faced the same challenge at times, although we had fairly large group of Packard Foundation grantees testing the frameworks which helped.   Despite the difficulty of working measurement in a generic way, the output from sessions was quite valuable.

What was most useful for me was the opportunity to see around the table with evaluators and communications people and brainstorm, shape, and clarify success outcomes.   It was also quite useful to hear and try to translate different evaluation frameworks and methodologies to social media.

MT @jeffcdi@mayurhpatel of @knightfdn “social web is not icing; needs to be baked in” to foundation strategy, w HT to @elzbthmllr #sm_re

— Elizabeth R. Miller (@ElzbthMllr) April 25, 2013

Mostly, these outcomes focused on communications, but I would like to see another step – going through this process but with a grant strategy or program lens. The day kicked off with presentations.    I shared the above presentation about the State of Social Media Measurement in the nonprofit sector.   It covered maturity of practice in social media and measurement and brief case studies of advanced practitioners including Humane Society, UpWell, and DoSomething.   I shared some areas of improvement and notes about tools, including Alison Carlman from Global Giving’s spreadsheet.

“SlideShare is a hidden gem for sharing philanthropic learnings and content” @mayurhpatel from @knightfdn @rwjf #SM_RE — Christine Nieves (@NievesChristine) April 25, 2013
 

Mayur Patel from the Knight Foundation shared an fantastic presentation on the Knight Foundation’s experience measuring its social media use.   His thoughts are shared in this follow up blog post and I captured the main points as Tweets in this Storify.   What struck me were the many similarities to business to business marketing strategies and measurement.

Katelyn Mack from FSG gave a presentation about the results of  social media impact for the Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge.   The presentation offers some great examples of how to measure offline engagement and how to measure it.

At the end of the meeting, we were asked to sign a “commitment to continuing to advance social media measurement.”    There is a desire to move the practice of measurement forward in the field – so stay tuned for the grand synthesis and report from the meeting and continued dialogue.  For starters, follow the #sm_re hashtag on Twitter.

 

 

 

1 | The Story Of Superstorm Sandy Through The Eyes Of NYC's Digital First Responders | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation: Superstorm Sandy struck New York on October 29th, 2012. Six months later, the city’s digital first responders recall how they sprang into action, quickly disseminating information and helping to save lives.

CRM requires a more cohesive, customer-centric focus | TMA Resources: Computerworld reported that an overwhelming majority of CRM projects are still focused inward on the objectives of the organization, when the goal should be driving value to clients. The source explained that the ultimate goal of CRM initiatives should be to drive a more meaningful experience, which requires that the client's voice is heard on all channels

Please post your nonprofit marketing position here for full-time or part-time staff, consulting or internship opportunities.

New Opportunities

Chief Marketing Officer, Conservation International (Alexandria, VA)

Communications Director  and Media Relations Manager, Friends of the Earth (Washington DC)

Communications Director, Service Women’s Action Network (New York, NY)

Communications Director, Citizen Engagement Laboratory (Berkley, CA)

Communications Officer, Auschwitz Institute (New York, NY)

Digital Communications Coordinator, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts
(Hatfield, MA)

Digital Content Specialist,  Planned Parenthood  (Washington DC)

Director of Communications, Center for Democracy and Technology (Washington DC)

Director of Communications, Common Sense Media (San Francisco, CA)

Director of Communications, Education Pioneers (San Francisco, CA)

Director of Marketing, Clean Energy Works (Portland, Oregon)

Interactive Marketing Consultant, Beaconfire (Arlington, VA)

New Media Online Campaign Manager, SEIU.org (Washington DC)

Vice President of Marketing & Communications, National Summer Learning Association (Baltimore, MD)

Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Alliance for a Healthier Generation
(New York, NY)

RECENT OPPORTUNITIES

Nonprofit Marketing Jobs—April 22, 2013

P.S. Submit your open positions here!

relief organization. As a secular, California-based 501c3 nonprofit organization, our mission is to empower students to provide communities in developing nations with sustainble solutions that improve quality of life while respecting local...

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Nonprofit E-File Data Should Be Open - Sunlight Foundation Blog: Carl Malamud's been busy recently, playing an important role in opening the D.C. Code. But that's not all he's been up to. For years, Carl's efforts at Public.Resource.Org have helped to distribute the data provided to the IRS by nonprofits through Form 990. The data contained in this form is vital public information: it can help donors figure out who's running a nonprofit and how effectively. If you've ever used a site like Charity Navigator to research your giving decisions, you've used 990 data.

While members of the Millennial Generation, now the largest generation in our nation’s history, are widely known for a desire to give back to their communities or be part of large social change movements – the way Millennials define their engagement tends to be very different from the way organizations do. 

When you ask a Millennial, “Do you support a nonprofit or social cause?” The resounding answer is, “Yes!” When you follow that up by asking, “How do you support that organization?” You’re likely to hear answers like, I signed a petition, changed my avatar on Twitter, or liked them on Facebook.

Now, ask an organization if Millennials are supporting their cause, and they say, “No, we just can’t figure out how to reach them.”  There in lies the disconnect between Millennials who believe they are supporting activism versus what organizations see as truly engaged participation.

With that in mind, organizations must embrace the notion that how they define engagement will be different. A one-size-fits-all approach is nearly impossible and will only meet the needs of a small segment of your audience – typically the super-engaged Millennials.

So, how do we convert a new generation of organizational champions into loyal and passionate advocates and donors? And how can we best position organizations so they are able to capture the limited time, dollars and attention spans of a generation always on the go? We’ll be the first to say, there’s no silver bullet. But there are a few concepts that we introduce in Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement that we hope will help your organization navigate this ever-changing space.

In Cause for Change, we introduce the Virtuous Cycle of Engagement as the core to building an organization’s Millennial engagement strategy. Here’s what the Cycle looks like – starting with the inquisitive and conscious consumer and moving toward deeper engagement as activists and ultimately true influencers or peer agents.

The 10 Business Growing Pains that Social Media is Going Through Right Now | Social Media Today

A huge conference like the NTC always fills me with tons of ideas and a renewed determination to work smarter, fail faster, and build stronger professional relationships. And then...I get back to my desk. Monday comes. News headlines distract me, my to-do list grows, and I have to work hard to sustain the energy that was so palpable just days before.

Sound familiar? If you haven’t digested or implemented all of your takeaways from the conference—or if you couldn’t make it, and are itching to connect with fellow nonprofit techies—you may want to check out the NTEN Communities of Practice (CoPs). 

The 12 different CoPs are made up of people who meet here on our site to discuss shared interests all year round. Each operates a little differently, according to the needs and preferences of their members. For example, Ivan Boothe and Johanna Bates, the moderators of the Drupal CoP, host a monthly Q&A phone call about all things Drupal for practitioners at all skill levels. (Intrigued? There’s one this Thursday.)

Meanwhile, the many devoted organizers of the CoP known as CommBuild have found weekly tweet chats most useful. If you’re a community organizer, online community manager, or interested in breaking into a similar field, log onto Twitter next Tuesday at 10am Pacific and search for the hashtag #CommBuild – a rich, welcoming discussion will await you.

And those are just two examples. Want to dip your toes in the water?

• Peruse the list of CoPs and join the ones that resonate with you. Note that most of the groups are open to the public, but some do have specific membership guidelines and we ask that you honor those. (For example, you’ll notice that the IT Directors group is designed specifically for nonprofit CTOs, CIOs, IT Directors, or MIS Managers. If you don’t fit that profile, please steer clear of that group or touch base with the moderators before joining.)

• Set your my.nten.org notifications to receive email updates so you don’t miss any group activity. Some people opt for daily or weekly digests, but I find the activity level to be manageable, and the conversation most useful, when I receive them in real time.

• Imagine you’re meeting the group members in person. What would you hope to discuss? Share an article that fired you up or a blog post you wrote. Ask questions. Chime in with solutions, success or failure stories, ideas. These groups are what you make them.

Why wait until the next annual conference to get help, learn something, or make new friends in your field? You’ve got a vibrant community of nonprofit tech champions right at your fingertips.