2009/04/07: Online presence for nonprofits

NetTuesday/Triangle 501 Tech Club

Location: Earth Fare, 10341 Moncreiffe Rd, Brierdale Shopping Center, Raleigh, NC 27560, (919) 433-1390

Speaker: Round-table discussion led by Judy Hallman.

Online presence for nonprofits -- more than just a Web site: Besides your own Web site, your nonprofit organization can benefit from being listed in other online services.

  • Which services (for example, GuideStar, Charity Navigator, Facebook, NC Center for Nonprofits) is your nonprofit registered with?
  • What benefits do the listings bring (for example, donors, volunteers, publicity)?
  • How do you maintain current information about your organization in each listing?
  • What control do you have over what is posted for and about your organization?

Bring your questions and experiences to this round-table discussion.

This was a new place for us. The room was quite comfortable and there were plenty of choices in the store for food and drinks.

Notes and discussion:

  • Frankie's Fun Park, Raleigh, was suggested as a meeting place and has been added to the list of meeting places.
  • Purple Elephant gets volunteers from Triangle Gives Back and Volunteer Match.
  • Justin is interested in social entrepeneurship. He attended a Startup Weekend.
  • We talked about items in the handout below.
    • Add Triangle Community Foundation.
    • Barb pointed out that Charity Navigator requires public support to be more than $500,000 in the most recent fiscal year.
    • Trish pointed out www.changingthepresent.org and said nonprofits can offer presents.
    • Barb talked about the value of Facebooks ads: $5/day, $.50/click, hers had 300,000 views and 200 click-throughs (I think that's what she said).
    • Nancy wasn't able to attend but sent email with her comments on Facebook -- after about 20 months experience and adapting to two major updates. Printed copies were in the handout below.
    • trianglegivesback.org was mentioned.
    • durhamcares.org was mentioned.
    • change.org sends a lot of email.
  • Trish talked about a movie making course. The participants made a movie using Windows Movie Maker and Audacity and a Flip video camera. They had a film festival at the end. Sites include www.dogooder.tv, blip.tv, vodpod.com (capture videos like Flicker, you pick the ones you want). Trish would be willing to do a meeting on movie making.

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 7 people.
About 4 forms collected.

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NetTuesday site/email list: 3
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list:
  • Another email list (please specify):
  • A friend/colleague: 1
  • Other (please specify): Meetup.com

Suggestions for future meetings:

  • Topics I Could Present On:
    • Coordinating volunteers with mobile devices.
  • Topics I'm Interested In:
    • Coordinating volunteers with mobile devices.
  • I'd like to join the organizers group to help plan meetings:
  • Good meeting places: Carrboro Coworking, Edge Office
  • Other suggestions:

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting. 1
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet. 1
    • I use this technology. 1
    • I could give this talk.
    • Other
  • Was the meeting what you expected? 2 Yes, No, 2 had no expectations
  • Was the meeting worth your time? 4 Yes
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: Immediately? Yes, Did already.      Within six months? 2 Yes, No
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic? 1 Yes, No
  • Comments:
    • Thank you

Handout

Online presence for nonprofits -- more than just a Web site, April 7, 2009

The meeting summary, with this handout, will be posted at http://nccommunities.org/meetings

Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, http://www.charitablegift.org/

Winter 2009 Newletter, Winter http://www.charitablegift.org/docs/Benefactor-Winter-2009.pdf

Evaluating Charities http://www.charitablegift.org/your-charitable-plan/evaluating/missions.shtml

Charitable Giving Resources, http://www.charitablegift.org/your-charitable-plan/evaluating/resources.shtml -- a good list

Charity Navigator, http://www.charitynavigator.org

Top 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors, http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=419

6 Questions To Ask Charities Before Donating, http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=28

GuideStar, http://www.guidestar.org/

When is the last time you updated your Guidestar entry? http://nonprofits.change.org/blog/view/when_is_the_last_time_you_updated_your_guidestar_entry: "Web 2.0 fundraising is built upon and empowered by the Guidestar database. Change.org, Network for Good, and Facebook Causes (just to name a few!) are all pulling your organization's information directly from Guidestar." Note the comments on this post. GuideStar had major changes Feb. 1.

It's a PAIN to update! Show RTPnet's info that I can't figure out how to change and the forms.

Triangle United Way, http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/

Designation Questions, https://donor.united-e-way.org/CustomPage.aspx?id=1#Where%20can%20I%20direct

Volunteer Spotlight, http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/vol/

Teaming for Technology, http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/t4t/community_impact.asp

Triangle Impact, http://triangleimpact.org/

Choose a Project, http://triangleimpact.org/projects/viewProject.php

Volunteer Projects, http://triangleimpact.org/projects/viewProject.php?_mode=project_intro&_clearFlag=course,specialevent

Corporate Projects, http://triangleimpact.org/AboutUs/index.php/corp_events.html

VolunteerMatch, http://www.volunteermatch.org/

Search Chapel Hill NC, Technology

Change.org, http://www.change.org/

Search RTPnet, click "Public Information Network, NC," "Click Read More"

Network for Good, http://www.networkforgood.org

Search RTPnet. "This organization has chosen to opt-out of receiving donations through Network for Good." Huh??? Search orange literacy. Login for GuideStar doesn't work for Network for Good. "Powered by GuideStar and VolunteerMatch" Search for a volunteer opportunity literacy 27514. All links go just to volunteermatch.org.

Idealist.org, http://www.idealist.org/

Search RTPnet -- listing is out of date. Idealist doesn't use GuideStar database.

Facebook See Nancy Shoemaker's email.

Being visable in the right places

NC Center for Nonprofits, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/

These nonprofit organizations are investing in themselves today for a stronger future tomorrow, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/mbralpha.asp

Member Services, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/memberservices.asp

Nonprofit Calendar of workshops and trainings available to nonprofits, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/calendar.asp -- Nonprofits can post their items for free.

NTEN, http://www.nten.org/ -- people who change the world

NTEN Helps You Get Attention and Be Heard, http://nten.org/join/benefits-professional-roi -- becoming a member means being connected to the leaders in nonprofit technology -- and being listed in the online directories with them.

Search for organizational members in NC - https://www.ntenonline.org/EWEB/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=NTENOrgSearch&site=NTEN

Search for individual members in NC - https://www.ntenonline.org/EWEB/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=NTENMemberSearch&site=NTEN

Others:

TechFinder, http://techfinder.org, http://techsoup.org/techfinder/index.cfm, under "Service," click "Hosting," "RTPnet"

IRS, Domain registry, Funding agencies (Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation), MySpace, LinkedIn


Subject: Re: Thoughts on the value of being listed in Facebook -- other thoughts???
From: Nancy Shoemaker 
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:11:13 -0400
To: Judy Hallman 

Here are some comments on Facebook -- after about 20 months experience and adapting to two major updates.

1. Facebook makes the barrier to getting info onto the web very low. Encouraging volunteers to post about
 your issues is more about motivation than technical training.

2. Facebook's emphasis is on viral marketing in the "friend-to-friend" sense. The primacy of the
 individual permeates much of what makes Facebook unique. That's why it's important to expand the list of
 those who will post information for you.

3. While Facebook does support "groups," there is no formal support for finding out when something new has
 been posted to one of your key groups (even if you are the administrator). The "check back often" 
assumption is just odd in the days of RSS feeds everywhere. This limits the value of volunteers posting on
 related groups about your issues since there's no guarantee that the members of the group will ever come 
back and see the updates. This may, of course, change as Facebook evolves.

4. Facebook "pages" have some advantages over Facebook "groups" - and seem to be the way to go for
 nonprofits building a Facebook presence.
o There is no limit on the number of "fans" that the page admin can "message" (once a group reaches 5000,
 that feature is turned off)
o Messages from pages come in as "notifications" rather than "messages" -- less disruptive to the
 recipient (and perhaps less likely to be read?)
o The "suggest to friends" link for pages is new -- and may not be used as often as the "invite to join"
 link for groups
o Pages have a "wall" and posts there bleed through into users home pages/news feeds -- like the actions
 of their friends (somewhat mitigating the "primacy of the individual" characteristic)
o Applications (like importing an RSS feed as "notes") can be added to pages -- with groups you've got the
 basic functions and that's all.
o The flip side of being able to add applications is that Pages have a more complex structure than groups.
 You can place the applications on different tabs -- not everything appears on the main page.
o While applications can make changes to pages, not all of them get "publicized" to the fans. For instance
 when an individual imports blog posts as notes, those get published to their friends. The same doesn't
 appear to be the case for pages.

5. Other notes -
o Searching for your issues on Facebook may turn up new stakeholders
o Cultivating the garden takes time and energy -- but the benfits may be worth it.

Best specific advantage for me to date -- finding Birgit Pauli-Haack because she started the AAUW Naples
 (FL) branch group.  She's now a board member for the AAUW  Tar Heel Branch and has been connected to the
 national technology group.

I think of Facebook as the "student union" -- everybody swings by there at some point, and you're never
 sure what conversations you'll overhear, what bulletin board postings you see, and what friends of 
friends you'll meet. It's a place to get some initial visibility for your issues, but it does take off-
Facebook follow up to convert those contacts to real supporter.

-Nancy